Equity Group, Kenya’s second-largest bank by assets, has fired over 1,200 employees in a sweeping anti-fraud purge the biggest of its kind by a Kenyan bank in recent memory. The mass layoffs follow a months-long internal investigation into staff collusion with fraudsters that cost the bank more than $15.4 million (KES 2 billion) across two years.
Some of the stolen funds were traced to offshore accounts, including high-profile transfers to Abu Dhabi. The probe uncovered widespread lapses across departments, with staff either facilitating or ignoring suspicious transactions involving customers.
“This is the moment of reckoning,” CEO James Mwangi told Business Daily. “I will protect the customers and the bank. I will be ruthless.”
The first wave of dismissals began quietly on May 20, with 200 employees let go. But this week’s larger sweep marks a clear shift in the bank’s stance on internal misconduct. Equity, which employs over 14,000 people, says the investigation will extend to all seven countries it operates in, including Uganda, Rwanda, and the DRC, hinting at more exits to come.
To uncover links to fraud, the bank has been examining staff transactions, including personal M-PESA activity and internal accounts. According to insiders, even minimal interaction with known fraud suspects was enough to trigger termination.
Mwangi warned customers against attempting to influence staff with bribes or tips. “This is not a toll station,” he said. “If you’ve ever eaten Mama Mboga’s chicken, the moment has come.”
While the move is likely to earn support from regulators and the public, it exposes deeper governance gaps in Kenya’s banking sector, long plagued by internal fraud. Few institutions have taken such a bold and public approach to rooting it out.
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