Nakumatt, the troubled Kenyan supermarket chain, has closed its flagship Westgate Mall supermarket as its debt crisis continues.

Nakumatt has closed its flagship Westgate Mall supermarket. On Saturday, 7th October, in a public notice, Nakumatt announced that the branch will be closed on Sunday, October 8 “until further notice”. The closure comes one week after Nakumatt’s Junction Mall branch was closed and follows on from the closure of its Thika Road Mall branch. The retailer had also closed its NextGen Mall on Mombasa Road less than a year after it first opened and has also closed its Haile Selassie branch (at Kenyatta University Plaza) and Ronald Ngala branch, all of which are in Nairobi.

There has been little detail to follow up on the surprise announcement that Nakumatt and Tuskys were considering merger options. During this period in which the merger detail is being thrashed out, Nakumatt’s debt crisis is worsening and it is losing the flagship, destination stores that should be integral to any recovery effort.