Tuskys: How a Family Feud Bankrupted One of Kenya's Biggest Supermarkets

Tuskys was one of East Africa's biggest supermarket chains — over 60 stores, thousands of employees, billions of shillings in annual revenue. Then it collapsed to just 5 stores. This is the full story of how it happened. It started with a family. Joram Kamau built Tuskys from a small shop in Rongai into a retail empire spanning Kenya and Uganda. But when he died in 2002, ownership passed to his children — and the business that had run on family trust for decades suddenly needed something it never had: formal governance. By 2012, the disagreements were public. Brothers were accusing each other over the management of the company. There were disputes over control of bank accounts, questions over roughly 1.5 billion shillings in loans and advances to related companies, and even a physical confrontation between two brothers that ended up in court. None of that shows up as a line item on a balance sheet. But it shaped every decision that did. By 2020, Tuskys owed suppliers 6.2 billion shillings. Revenue had collapsed from an estimated 48 billion shillings in 2018 to 17.1 billion in 2020 — a 64% decline. Staff went unpaid for months. Some staff reportedly paid themselves directly from the tills. Employees staged protests over salary delays. Owners were sued by DTB and Equity Bank over properties at risk of auction. Branches shut one by one, until 64 stores became 5. This is a story about what happens when the people controlling a company stop trusting each other — and how that conflict eventually reaches the balance sheet. ⏱️ Chapters: 0:00 – Opening 0:51 – Cold Open: The Rise of Tuskys 1:17 – Chapter 1: The Family That Built an Empire 2:41 – Chapter 2: When the Founder Dies 3:34– Chapter 3: The Family Feud 3:45 – Chapter 4: The Money Behind the Fight 4:47– Chapter 5: When Business Becomes Personal 5:33 – Chapter 6: The Governance Problem 5:59 – Chapter 7: When Trust Becomes a Financial Asset 13:07 – Chapter 8: 64 Branches to 5 19:15 – Chapter 9: The Psychology of Family Control 20:45 – Chapter 10: What Entrepreneurs Should Learn 22:36 – Final Chapter: Follow the money 📌 A note on sourcing: some of the events described (loan disputes, court cases) involve allegations rather than proven fact. We've tried to be precise about that distinction throughout. Sources referenced: Business Daily Africa Daily Nation The Standard The EastAfrican Citizen Digital 🔔 Subscribe for more deep dives into the financial history behind the world's biggest business collapses. What's your take — was this a family problem, a governance problem, or both? Comment below. #Tuskys #BeneathTheMoney #BusinessDocumentary SOURCES: https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/b... https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/busin... https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/b... https://nation.africa/kenya/news/tusk... https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/b... #Tuskys #TuskysCollapse #FamilyBusiness #CorporateGovernance #KenyaBusiness #BusinessFailure #FinancialHistory #MoneyPsychology #EastAfricaBusiness #BusinessDocumentary #BeneathTheMoney #CorporateCollapse #FamilyBusinessFails #RetailCollapse #AfricaBusiness