Kenya Commercial Bank stands accused of running a toxic workplace where bullying, humiliation, crushing workloads and managerial impunity thrive under the protection of top executives, while employees who dare speak out are sidelined, punished or driven out. Investigative journalist John Mtongoi has laid bare this institutional rot through a series of reports detailing the suicide of Head of Data Protection Rosemary Koech Kimwatu and the flood of fresh complaints that followed, painting a picture of a bank that shields alleged abusers at the highest levels while leaving ordinary staff without protection.
A week after Rosemary’s burial in Kericho, the outcry shows no sign of fading. Current and former employees across branches and departments continue to describe an environment of fear, public ridicule and relentless pressure.
Customers have joined the chorus, linking deteriorating service to the internal dysfunction.
The pattern is consistent and damning: complaints reach Human Resources and senior management, then vanish. Whistleblowers pay the price. Those named in serious allegations remain in post.
The Death That Exposed the Rot
Rosemary Koech, 40, headed KCB’s Data Protection Division. She died by suicide at her Ngong home on 21 August 2026.
A post-mortem confirmed the cause. Months earlier, in May 2026, she had emailed the bank’s Human Resources department formally complaining about Group Chief Risk Officer Faith Basiye. She described bullying, public ridicule and impossible workloads.
She further accused Basiye of conspiring with her estranged husband to have her committed to a mental health facility.
The email was copied to Group CEO Paul Russo and Managing Director Annastacia Kimtai. Neither responded. HR took no action.
That ignored complaint became public after her death. What followed was not isolated grief but a torrent of testimonies. Staff from Kencom, Voi, Industrial Area, Kisii West, the marketing unit and headquarters described the same culture of hostility.
Supervisors berated employees in banking halls. Young staff quit in droves. Some customers said they could “read the energy” the moment they walked in tense, unhappy faces behind the counters of a bank that projects corporate polish.
Branches in Distress, Customers Paying the Price
Complaints stretch far beyond one executive. At Kencom, staff appear under constant pressure visible even to outsiders. In Voi, employees were reportedly reduced to tears.
At Industrial Area, a supervisor named Norena is accused of driving young people out of the bank while remaining untouchable due to alleged connections to senior bosses.
The marketing team saw rapid resignations; former staff called the toxicity “crazy.”
Customers report inconsistent information on products, branch-level threats when issues are raised centrally, and a general decline in service quality over the past two years. Some have switched banks. One account holder noted that even watchmen once knew product details; now different representatives give conflicting answers on the same query.
The internal culture is leaking outward.
Sexual harassment allegations surface repeatedly. One commentator claimed KCB has carried a decades-long reputation for such behaviour from bosses “regardless of gender.”
These claims sit alongside the earlier formal reports against Paul Russo himself.
Leadership Under Scrutiny: Russo, Kimtai and Basiye
Paul Russo rose from Human Resources Director to Group CEO. During his HR tenure, three female employees formally reported him for sexual harassment.
The allegations described a pattern: summoning women to his office, deliberately dropping pens and ordering them to bend and retrieve them so he could observe from behind. Despite those complaints, he advanced to the top job.
The same HR machinery that failed Rosemary operated under the culture he helped shape.
Annastacia Kimtai, the first woman to lead the bank as Managing Director since April 2023, faces repeated descriptions of an authoritarian, dismissive style.
Employees speak of fear rather than learning from mistakes, of extreme turnover driven by unbearable conditions rather than better opportunities elsewhere, and of an environment where questioning decisions is career suicide.
Faith Basiye remains Group Chief Risk Officer despite being named in Rosemary’s detailed complaint as the superior who subjected her to public humiliation and crushing demands.
No public findings from that complaint have been released.
John Mtongoi’s reporting highlights the structural problem: Human Resources functions as a shield for senior management rather than a safeguard for staff. Whistleblowers are punished.
Those who stay learn silence is safer. Rosemary followed every internal procedure. She documented her experience, addressed it to the right people, and received nothing.
Three months later she was dead.
PR Spin and Unanswered Questions
KCB’s long-standing public relations agency, Oxygène Marketing Communications, has been accused of directing attention toward Rosemary’s marital separation, financial disputes and her husband’s political ambitions rather than the workplace complaint she lodged months before her death. Rosemary herself previously worked at Oxygène.
Critics argue the focus on her private life attempts to displace her own written account of corporate bullying.
Activists from the Alliance for Human Rights Activists issued a 72-hour ultimatum demanding an independent investigation and the preservation of all evidence, including records linked to a Ksh 146 billion transaction.
They noted Rosemary’s role in data protection gave her access to sensitive compliance and integrity information. Speculation has followed about whether that access played any part in the events surrounding her death.
KCB has not publicly explained the transaction or released findings on her complaint.
The Larger Reckoning
This is no longer about one tragedy. It is about a pattern repeated across branches and departments: excessive workloads, public humiliation, protected supervisors, ignored grievances, high staff turnover and visible strain on customer service. Employees exhausted internal channels.
Many now speak publicly because remaining silent feels more costly.
The Central Bank of Kenya has a duty that extends beyond balance sheets.
A systemically important bank that cannot protect its own people from harassment and bullying, that elevates individuals facing serious past allegations, and that leaves formal complaints unanswered undermines public confidence.
Customers notice the misery. Staff leave or suffer in silence. Leadership remains intact.
How many more employees are crying in back offices, working through the night under impossible pressure, or enduring supervisors who know they are protected? Rosemary’s documented plea went unanswered.
The stream of fresh complaints shows the same system continues. Until those at the top face real accountability or external intervention forces it the toxic culture that has been exposed will keep claiming victims.
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