School accuses Unilever of bias in Blue Band promo

By Martin Mutua

A row is simmering between organisers of Blue Band promotion and a primary school, which claims the firm has denied it the top prize – a bus.

Teachers, pupils and parents of Bidii Primary School in Nairobi’s Eastlands are accusing Unilever Company Limited, the organisers of Blue Band competition of denying them the prize after they allegedly won.

Speaking to The Standard yesterday, the teachers vowed to seek the prize, which will be handed today to a private school from Nairobi.

The teachers who spoke on condition of anonymity said by the close of deadline on October 18, the school had garnered 25,000 points while their close rivals Tendering School from Kibera had 18,000 points.

However, they said they were shocked on October 22 when their rival accumulated additional 13,000 points in ‘mysterious circumstances’.

“We cannot understand how our competitors acquired the additional 13,000 points yet by close of midnight on October 18, we were leading by 25,000 and they had 18,000 and we have that list,” added a teacher at the school.

The sources said when the school learnt of the debacle, they wrote to Unilever to protest and the company sent three managers to the school. The school has since received a letter inviting only one teacher who was in charge of the competition to attend the award ceremony this morning. “We shall have the entire school at the event to protest the injustice,” said another teacher.

Unilever manager in charge of the competition Pauline Kamau promised to give a response on the matter. However, by the time of going to press she had not responded.