Nakumatt CEO Atul Shah Accused of Stealing Sh18 Billion Worth of Stock

The path to recovery of the embattled retail chain Nakumatt has taken a new twist after the court’s appointed administrator, Peter Kadhi accused Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Atul Shah of playing part in the loss of Sh18 billion.

Kahi said Shah wrote off suppliers’ stock worth Sh18 billion without following due process.

Appearing before Senate's Tourism, Trade and Industrialisation Committee, which is investigating the slow death of what was the country's largest supermarket chain, Kadhi pointed out that the stock could have been sold and the funds looted before the retailer fell into financial distress.

 Kahi told the senate team that Nakumatt wrote off stock worth Sh18 billion in May last year on grounds that there were items in the system that were not actually on the retail chain’s shelves.

“It means that the books were massaged a long time ago. It means there was cooking of books. I am looking for money to hire a forensic investigator to tell us where the money is. We are told some money may have been siphoned out of the country. This is a lot of money that disappeared from the company’s books,” said Kadhi.

Kahi said he needs about Sh15 million to ensure that the forensic audit is carried out to establish where the cash was wired to .

The retail chain's former management said the discrepancy was realized due to massive “theft, pilferage, stock shrinkage and losses arising from stock obsolescence," a response that Kahi described as “unsatisfactory.”