How a $231,000 dispute between Naivas and FlexPay ended in police cells
The internal memo called it an “immediate suspension” caused by “ongoing operational challenges.” Those three corporate words concealed a relationship that was coming apart.
In March 2026, managers at Naivas supermarkets, Kenya's largest retail chain, received instructions to cease doing business with the instalment-payment platform FlexPay. This suspension of five years of partnership came about due to ongoing operational challenges, though the true cause lay in a dispute over money worth approximately KES 30 million ($231,000).
Naivas opted to stop accepting FlexPay transactions, remove promotional materials, and prevent FlexPay staff from operating within its stores. The dispute stemmed from disagreements over the financial arrangement between the two entities, which ultimately led to police involvement as Naivas sought assistance from the Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) to recover the disputed funds from FlexPay founders Martin Kariuki Maina and Johnson Gituma Mwangi.
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