This archive report was first published on 1 November 2019.
On November 1, 2019, SportPesa employees were left in uncertainty as they received an email from the company's head of human resource, Terry Wanja Njagi, informing them to report to the Chancery Building on Valley Road in Nairobi on Friday to withdraw their termination notices issued on October 2, 2019.
However, the employees were not called back for new job offers, but rather to receive redundancy notices. This move has left many of the 400 plus employees who were terminated in a state of uncertainty.
When reached for comment, SportPesa's CEO, Ronald Karauri, declined to provide any information, stating 'No comment, no comment.'
However, in a previous statement, Karauri had said that the company decided to call the employees after being advised to 'issue proper and legal notices even as we wait for the Betting Control and Licensing Board to act on our application.'
This suggests that the company is still optimistic about getting back its operating license, which was withdrawn in July after the firm allegedly failed to remit Sh14 billion in tax arrears to the Kenya Revenue Authority.
Before its closure, SportPesa had been out of business for nearly three months after the government suspended its pay bill numbers. The company had expressed disappointment at the government's move to impose a 20 per cent excise tax on all betting stakes on top of the 20 percent on customer winnings.
