Yusuf would not let them photograph the entire invoice.
“Our pricing is confidential. I can give you a redacted copy and a written timeline.”
Daudi accepted immediately.
MjiMart had bought packaging from Kifaru for four years. The current PO, 410-B, covered deliveries over two weeks. On Wednesday morning the customer received an email from Kifaru’s commercial side saying invoicing after the current delivery should move to Nova Crate.
“Has your company approved a supplier change?” Daudi asked.
“Not yet. Nova is still onboarding.”
Yusuf showed the vendor portal from his own screen. Kifaru remained active. Nova was marked **onboarding pending**.
“What about goods already produced by Kifaru?”
“The instruction we received points payment to Nova.”
Yusuf had another fact. A remaining balance for last week’s Kifaru delivery was scheduled for Monday. The new instruction attempted to route that payment to Nova as well.
Amani took a breath. “Even an old delivery?”
“That is what the instruction says. Our legal team is reviewing it.”
Daudi asked Yusuf to separate instruction from outcome in his statement. They would not say money had moved until it actually moved.
Yusuf agreed. He also asked them not to use MjiMart’s name in the worker group as proof of wrongdoing.
“We can prove our records,” he said. “We cannot prove your management’s motive.”
Daudi promised.
Yusuf also explained why MjiMart had not simply cancelled everything. His stores still needed boxes. A customer was not a savior of Kifaru’s workers; it was protecting its own supply chain.
That kept Daudi from romanticizing the evidence source. Naliaka wanted supplier payment. Yusuf wanted reliable packaging. Workers wanted wages. Each side could cooperate without sharing the same motive.
Before leaving, Daudi asked Yusuf to keep the original email and portal record under MjiMart’s own retention process. The worker committee did not need custody of customer data. It needed a customer willing to confirm its own timeline when the time came.
Outside, Amani said, “Now we have revenue.”
“We have a direction for revenue.”
“You are exhausting.”
“But it matters.”
Daudi called the worker representatives before dinner. He told them not to count the MjiMart receivable as recovered cash.
“Actual credit is still zero.”
Rehema asked whether they could at least say expected income was at risk.
“Yes. In ordinary language: money we expected may go somewhere else.”
Kelvin laughed over the phone. “Finally, a sentence normal people can understand.”
Back at the office, Daudi filed Yusuf’s statement in the payroll-risk record. Treasury remained locked. The payroll module still showed pending funds.
HR finally issued its formal delay notice:
**Reason: temporary liquidity timing during strategic investment process.** **Expected resolution: within seven calendar days.**
Seven days.
It was the first time management had offered a written period employees could hold against later reality.
But if Monday’s MjiMart payment went to Nova, one of Kifaru’s few visible cash sources would be gone before those seven days ended.
Daudi wrote one question for Leonard: *If the rescue plan is genuine, why is an outstanding Kifaru receivable being redirected before payroll is separated?*
Leonard had already invited him to dinner.
At 20:30 Daudi entered a roadside restaurant and found the CFO at a corner table.
An envelope sat beside Leonard’s glass.
“I do not want to fire you,” Leonard said. “I want you on the side that survives.”
Inside the envelope was an employment offer.
**Nova Crate Ltd. — Head of Finance Operations.**
The salary was almost double Daudi’s pay at Kifaru.