When the merger between Haco Industries and Tiger Brand was announced, Chris Kirubi, the Chairman of the company gave the following speech:

“Haco Industries and Tiger Brands are not only partners but are joined at the hip in the future of this nation and the business that they are involved in. I can attest that I could not find a better partner than Tiger Brands”

That was when everything was rosy. Then grey clouds in form of graft gathered over this rosy union blown by the winds of fraud...

Top managers at Haco Tiger Brands, have been accused of profit manipulation in a scandal that has seen the managing director fired and soured relationships with the South African company which owns 51% stake of the company.

The sacked MD, Geoffrey Mwathi Kiarie, is facing accusations he falsified operating profits by Sh879 million, negatively impacting the half-year results of the Johannesburg-listed Tiger Brands.

Kirubi released a statement following the scandal which threatens to sour his relationship with his South African business partners:

“As the local shareholder of Haco Tiger Brands, I’m disappointed with the managers involved in manipulating figures, their actions are unacceptable and I condemn them.”

Just how did the graft happen? Well, stock that was yet to be sold was moved to third party warehouses to make it look like performance targets had been hit.

Adjusting for this led to a 30 per cent drop in Haco Tiger Brands’ operating profit for the six months to March.

The Johannesburg-based firm, which has operations in Kenya, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe, announced that its group operating income declined by three per cent to Sh13.8 billion even as turnover increased seven per cent to Sh129.4 billion. This drop, it said, was also attributable to foreign exchange losses at in Nigeria business.

Chris Kirubi also owns Capital FM and DJs on one of the shows and is known as DJ CK when performing.