This archive report was first published on 9 August 2019.
As the August 12 deadline for objections to the Airtel-Telkom merger approaches, a group of 52 former Airtel Kenya employees has thrown a spanner into the works by petitioning the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) to block the consolidation process.
The former workers, who were laid off as part of Airtel's restructuring process, claim that the merger is being carried out in a 'clandestine' manner and is strategically structured to deny them access to the potential fruits of their claims in the court of law.
They are demanding Sh1 billion from Airtel for unfair termination and want the merger stopped until the company gives an undertaking that the new entity will take up the liability.
According to a letter to the CA, the workers' lawyers, Okatch and Partners Advocates, fear that Airtel might throw them under the bus if the merger goes on unchallenged.
'Information regarding the merger is scanty as it is being released very economically and strategically by parties therein such as that our clients are left confused as to the impact will have on their claim,' the lawyers said.
The workers were rattled by a Gazette notice by Telkom Kenya, which stipulated that the new entity would not assume any liabilities for the entities merging.
CA had given anyone opposed to the merger until August 12 to raise objections, failure to which it would approve the marriage between the two firms that will form a new operator to be known as Airtel-Telkom.
