The following feature on Victoria Commercial Bank was first published by Tuko! has disclaimed allegations that it is Indian-owned. The bank which has been operating in the country for over 30 years suffered malicious publicity on social media indicating that it was not a local entity and was discriminative against Kenyan employees.
A random visit at the bank’s Nairobi offices on Wednesday, September 25, established that the majority of employees were Kenyans of African race. The bank which specializes in corporate and private banking has nine departments.
Many of these departments headed by Kenyans contrary to allegations that it had only Indian employees. “We have nine departments and you are at liberty to explore at your desired time who is in charge,” said the Senior Executive. A fact finding mission at the bank revealed the Branch Managers, Human Resource, Audit, Finance, Trade, Environment & Social, Legal and Compliance departments are all headed by Kenyans of African Origin. Only the Treasury, Risk and Credit departments are headed by Kenyans of Indian race.
A spot check also confirmed that about two thirds of employees at the Westlands branch were Kenyans of African race including the manager.
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I have been working here for 20 years now. This was my second job and I have grown here. As a senior staff, I have never heard sexual molestation claims. We have a policy against such and anyone aggrieved would report for action because of the safe mechanism we have,” one of the bank employees who requested anonymity said.
She also disclaimed allegations that employees have been leaving the bank shortly after being employed, confirming the staff retention was averagely 15 years. Another female member of staff interviewed randomly said she had worked at the financial organisation for about 10 years. “I was employed when the branch was still at Riverside area. We moved here and literally set this office up from scratch. The working environment is favourable. We have leave days and necessary covers and that should explain why people hardly leave,” said a staff member.
She said she was surprised to hear accusations of threatening work environment from online sites, saying she had personally not been interviewed over the matter.
“We work as a family and complaints of any nature are addressed transparent. Sometimes it feels like we are favoured when we compare our experiences with counterparts in other similar institutions,” said the employee whom we granted anonymity on her request.
Administrators who sought anonymity citing unfair condemnation by creators of malicious content who trolled Victoria Commercial Bank Kenya CEO Yogesh Pattni, confirmed that he is born in Kenya and also holds a Kenyan passport and has never held Indian passport or citizenship. “None of the directors hold Indian passports as claimed. The fact that some of the directors are of Asian race does not justify the false accusation. We are Kenyans by birth and never held Indian passports below,” he said.