Mediator Tunu Malima began with a sentence everyone disliked.
“We will not solve the entire company today.”
Ms. Naliaka folded her arms. “Then why am I here?”
“To stop tomorrow from being worse than today.”
Three schedules lay on the table: reconciled payroll, participating supplier balances, and an essential-asset and finished-stock list.
Tunu asked the first practical question. “What cash can realistically arrive within forty-eight hours?”
Leonard named the investor bridge.
“Committed?”
“Expected.”
“Document?”
“A term sheet.”
“Conditional?”
“Yes.”
Yusuf Dengo joined by video. MjiMart was prepared to receive the old Kifaru order if quality, safe delivery and a lawful payment account were confirmed. Payment could be made against delivery.
“That is the clearest route to cash currently visible?” Tunu asked.
Daudi said yes.
Amani explained that existing paper stock was enough to complete part of the order if industrial power was restored and essential machinery stayed in place. The utility would reconnect after a minimum arrears payment.
Now the small pool was being divided before it existed.
Kelvin demanded payroll first.
Naliaka pointed out that without utility payment there would be no production and therefore no customer cash.
Rehema asked what happened to suppliers.
“I will wait for a tranche if I can see the order proceeds,” Naliaka said.
Leonard argued that ring-fencing the customer receipt might cause the investor to walk.
Tunu asked for a written investor condition requiring that. Leonard did not have one.
Daudi presented a proposal he had drafted overnight. Proceeds from the old Kifaru PO would enter a ring-fenced account limited to the agreed transaction. First, minimum utility reconnection and direct completion costs. Then the remaining balance would fund a first payroll tranche using the reconciled worker list. Participating suppliers would extend a short standstill. No essential asset would be sold or moved without notice during the agreed period.
Leonard accused him of illegally putting workers ahead of all creditors.
“I am not setting insolvency priority,” Daudi said. “This is a voluntary mechanism for this one identifiable cash flow. Anyone can refuse.”
Naliaka requested visibility into the transaction statement, not the company’s entire bank account. Worker representatives asked to see the total credit and payroll batch acknowledgment, not individual employees’ private bank information.
Tunu forced them to address failure as well. If the order failed quality inspection or the customer refused delivery, the ring-fenced mechanism would pause and the parties would return to mediation. Essential assets would not automatically become substitute cash.
Then Daudi found an error in his own draft calculation: one completion cost had been counted twice. He corrected it in front of everyone. The payroll tranche increased slightly.
Kelvin nodded. “Good catch.”
“That is why we calculate here instead of chanting a number outside.”
The mediator required the payroll formula to be attached before payment. An employee disputing an amount could present a payslip without gaining access to anyone else’s information.
The essential-asset standstill became five days, reviewable.
Tunu read the entire undertaking aloud. No waiver of claims. No admission of fraud. No additional transfer of essential assets without notice. Old-PO proceeds ring-fenced for agreed completion costs and the payroll tranche.
One by one, the participants signed.
Leonard signed as a company officer only after the CEO instructed him to acknowledge the mechanism.
The utility minimum was paid from a small emergency balance. Reconnection was scheduled for Tuesday morning. Yusuf confirmed MjiMart would send a truck after quality inspection.
Outside the mediation office, Amani asked the obvious questions.
“Did we pay the wages?”
“No.”
“Did we save the company?”
“No.”
“Then what did we do?”
Daudi held up the undertaking.
“We made a route that incoming cash cannot leave before people see where it is supposed to go.”
For the first time, tomorrow’s test had rules every side had read.