Redhouse Group, which for more than a decade became to be recognised as one of the main PR and Comms consultancies, in the country has moved to the High Court in Nairobi to issue an Insolvency Notice. According to the notice, Redhouse Group, through its two directors – Koome Mwambia and Esther Nduku Ngomeli – are seeking to appoint an Administrator (or Official Receiver).
Appointing an Administrator (or Receiver) after filing the Insolvency Notice essentially means that Redhouse Group has transferred the responsibility of its creditors to the Administrator. This is also means that any party – whether individual or corporate – can’t approach the company’s directors or employees to demand for yet to be settled dues (or outstanding debts).
The Insolvency Notice, issued on September 19, 2023, however states that: “In relation to the company, there is no application for the liquidation of the company that has been presented but that has not been disposed of”.
Redhouse Group’s insolvency notice is the culmination of the group’s board meeting held on August 11, 2023, attended by the two directors as well as Suzanne Muthaura, the legal counsel.
The main agenda of the meeting, chaired by Koome Mwambia, was to to deliberate on the current financial difficulties facing the company and recommend a suitable action to be taken in order to address the situation. Mwambia particularly emphasised whether it was appropriate to appoint Administrators to the company to handle its affairs.
“The chair reported that the official receiver, of 17th Floor, 316 Upper Hill Chambers, 2nd Ngong Avenue, Nairobi, Kenya, a licensed insolvency practitioner, has agreed in principle to act as administrator of the company, should the meeting resolve to place the company into administration,” reads the minutes of the meeting.
In the period leading up to the current situation, there had been murmurs from Redhouse Group’s contractors that payments were not been remitted on time with claims that the firm may be facing a possible cash crunch.
When the group started losing key members as well as some of its top talent – who either opted to join the competition as in the case of Maureen Sande who moved to P&L as the managing partner or Esther Ngomeli, one of the group’s directors, who mid this year ventured out to form Zenith East Africa, a new IMC outfit – the rumours got louder, with allegations that all was not fine at Riverside Drive-based company. With the latest development however, all these claims and rumours can be confirmed to have had a degree of truth in them, even if not entirely factual.
Founded in 2012, Redhouse Group provides integrated marketing communication (IMC) services in strategic planning, creative design and advertising, Public Relations (PR), digital marketing, integrated media planning and audio-visual production to clients in East Africa. In the same year, Redhouse Group snapped a majority stake in local IMC firm Media Edge Group – comprising of Media Edge Interactive and Media Edge PR – which was founded and headed by Esther Ngomeli. Ngomeli then became one of the two directors of the group, together with Koome Mwambia.
After Media Edge, the group followed this up with the formation of Redhouse Advertising in March 2013. The advertising wing was headed by founding MD George Ojing, complimented by a team of 70 individuals.
In November of 2013, Redhouse Advertising acquired the TBWA Worldwide license in Kenya. TBWA Worldwide is an international advertising agency group with head offices in New York, with its Africa operations being coordinated out of Johannesburg, South Africa. The Agency is part of the Omnicom Group, a global brand communications firm.
At the time of its formation, Redhouse Group specifically aimed to develop and rollout an IMC footprint and capability within Kenya and the larger Eastern Africa region including Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and South Sudan.
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