When popular Kenyan food creator That Girl Boina took a two-week holiday to Europe, she expected to relax. A week into the trip, an Instagram direct message exposed a problem that would ultimately lead to the closure of her business.
“I was at your studio, I liked everything. The only problem was that I was asked to send money to a different number. It wasn’t the number on the wall,” a customer wrote to her.
Boina had opened Waxaholic Studio, a waxing and hydrafacial parlour in Nairobi’s central business district, on 1 September 2024. A year later, she had hired a receptionist and two specialists and felt confident enough to take a two-week holiday, her first international trip of the year.
“I trusted them. It’s two rooms and a reception – how do you mess that up?” she recalls thinking.
“It never occurred to me that maybe I was getting clients and someone else was stealing from me,” she tells the BBC.
The discovery prompted Boina to examine the business more closely. Although the business had made a profit in the first few months, revenue began to fall in early 2025. She initially dismissed the decline as a seasonal slump but then realised there was a problem.
“Everyone around was making money apart from me,” she says in hindsight.
She had already considered closing because it was not making a profit, but her initial investment, three employees depending on the business and her vision for it kept her going. The customer’s message became the turning-point.
“If I am not making money and I am willing to wait and see where this goes and you guys are not giving me the same energy, then why are we still open?”
Rather than confront the employees, Boina decided to close the studio. That weekend, she put it up for sale but found no buyer. She sold some of the equipment and took others, including decorations, home. Waxaholic Studio closed in October 2025.
“I remember my friend taking me to a restaurant, and I started crying. We were both silent.”
“What else would we do?”
Boina describes the experience as the worst feeling she has ever felt. The closure was not just a financial setback, but the loss of something she had built to secure her future.
In September, nearly a year after the business closed, Boina shared a video on TikTok recounting the experience, explaining that she had needed time to heal before speaking publicly about what happened.
The video went viral after being reposted on X, formerly Twitter, garnering close to one million views. It drew responses from many Kenyan business owners who described how theft, ranging from payment diversion to stock theft and the sale of expensive equipment, had pushed their businesses to the brink, forcing them to fire staff, sell their businesses or shut down.
“Although I have recovered emotionally, I am yet to recoup the money I invested in setting up and running the studio,” says Boina.
The reaction to her story showed that employee theft is a huge problem for many small businesses owners in Africa, where a handful of employees may control payments, stock and supplier transactions, often with limited oversight.
A 2022 survey by PwC, one of the world’s biggest consultancy firms, found that 63% of respondents in East Africa said their organisations had experienced economic crime, compared to a global figure of 46%.
