Late 2015, we announced that France Telkom Orange would offload its 70% in Telkom Kenya marking the exit of the player in the Kenyan market. Helios Investment Partners announced they would acquire the stake. Viettel was another player interested in the stake but the government, which owns 30% of Telkom Kenya had its reservation over the ownership of Viettel as its a wholly state-owned company that is operated by the Vietnamese Ministry of Defence.
The news was followed by the announcement that the Telco would be laying off a third of the workforce by Q1 2016. The firm stated it had notified the relevant labor authorities of its intentions which sought to institute efficiency through either automation of most of the tasks done by the exiting workforce or by recruiting a more efficient labour-force.
The workforce rationalization plan was to be spearheaded by PricewaterhouseCoopers with 500 employees from its 1,600-strong workforce affected. According to sources the first batch of lay-offs begun today with the IT & Networks, and Finance departments being the first casualties. The affected employees received their letters and begun clearing their desks.
Other departments will know their fate tomorrow on which employees will be leaving the firm in the rationalization efforts.