Telkom Kenya To Fire 75% of Its Employees Following the Merger with Airtel

The planned merger between Telkom and Airtel Kenya is taking shape with Telkom announcing a plan to send home 575 employees to accommodate new structure. The company has 800 employees meaning only 225 (25%) will retain their jobs.

Through a notice to all staff members on Wednesday, the CEO said the firm will discontinue the transferred business and must terminate the contract of employees currently deployed to serve the functions.

“In accordance with the provisions of employment act, we have notified communications workers union and sent out letters to individuals affected giving one month’s notice with effect from July 31,” says Telkom CEO Mugo Kibati. “We intend to terminate the employment of approximately 575 of our employees, on account of redundancy, as a result of the transaction,” the CEO said in the notice.

Employees tasked in performing administrative, and support tasks will also be affected.

In February, Telkom and Airtel announced the signing of a binding agreement to combine their respective mobile, enterprise and carrier services businesses in Kenya to operate under a joint venture company to be named Airtel-Telkom.

According to the CEO, the new joint venture might consider offering employment to some sacked employees “subject to positions being available in the new organisation and those individuals meeting the recruitment criteria.” says Kibati.