Chandarana Gets a Taste of Kenya’s Social Media Wrath

How well does your company handle and use the social media? What are some of the measures put in place that are used in monitoring the use of various social media platforms by the organization?

Social media has turned out to be a very critical platform for any organization in this era. It is a tool that connects the company with its potential and existing audiences. A lot of communication is done using various social media platforms that an organization has.

With social media comes the responsibility of having the knowledge of how best to manage these platforms as an organization.

Chandarana Food-Plus found itself on the receiving end by social media users, following a leaked email that portrayed racism.

According to the email, the supermarket chain was planning to hold a raffle challenge that was meant to attract white people to their supermarkets.

“We are delighted to inform you that our supermarket chain, would like to give you free vouchers to winner/raffles/best performer/runners-up candidate in upcoming events. As we are now focusing on white people to ‘attract our supermarkets’ sic,” read the mail in parts.

Chandarana Supermarket is found in most big City malls and other affluent neighborhoods where White People either live or visit.

Kenyans became furious and they spoke their minds on the matter. The conversation was under the hashtag #ChandaranaSoRacist where people aired their views and opinions, which most of them were meant to attack the retailer. Some Kenyan Twitter users vowed never to shop again with the retailer.

The social media uproar ended up attracting the attention of Nairobi Governor Mike Mbuvi Sonko on Sunday who canceled the licenses of all Chandarana supermarkets following the racial bias incident.

What is the result of license cancellation?

Chandarana supermarket chain is said to have employed about 1,200 people. With this closure, it means that these people will remain jobless, yet they also have families that depend on them.

It is sad that a business that is meant to serve customers with the highest sense of integrity and dignity only has the interest of the few at heart. All this while, the supermarket chain has the interest of white people first, and this can be depicted from the leaked email.

Having faced the wrath of social media users, the Supermarket management, went ahead and apologized for saying the ‘error was done by a newly recruited staff in the marketing department’.

“Chandarana Food-Plus would like to sincerely apologize for the unfortunate and insensitive narrative written on email by one of our very new and recent hires in the marketing department,” the company said in a statement.

The email was sent by Rima Patel, who is a Marketing Specialist at the store.

“Her lack of proficiency in English is an easy way to justify this horrendous error, while this is actually the case it really does not make it excusable in any way,” read the apology.

How well can any sane person interpret the apology from the retailer? Kenyans have been notified that whoever wrote the email does not understand English. This in itself is a debate topic and it can be seen as a lame way of defense.

It is now upon the Supermarket to fight for its survival and come up with strong measures that will reclaim back their name and bring the business back to life.