Former employee seeks compensation for wrongful termination

Eldoret,

Monday, September 25, 2023,

KNA by Luka Cherono

A former machine operator at the Eldoret based Ineet Millers Limited wants the Company to pay him Sh 1.3 million as compensation for unfair and wrongful termination of his service. 

 Chemia Sikutwa, through his lawyer Joseph Oyaro told Justice Maureen Onyango. 

sitting at the Eldoret Labour Court that the company failed to follow due process before sending him packing from the company where he had worked for four years from February 2014 on a Sh10,800 monthly salary. 

He told the court that he joined the Kenya Union of Commercial and Food Allied Worker as a member, something that did not please his employer.  

This he said, was the genesis of the bad blood with the company management which started to issue threats and intimidations so as to force him to revoke his membership. 

 “When I refused to revoke my membership in the union, the company management made good its threat to dismiss me from my job as machine operator,” he said. 

Shikutwa said he was falsely accused of stealing four bags of maize, and was arrested and detained at the Eldoret Central Police Station before he was released without any charges being preferred against him. 

He argued that the termination of his employment had caused him and family untold suffering. 

He accused the company’s management of using framed up theft charges against him, leading to his arrest by detectives attached to the directorate of criminal investigations department. 

But the company in its defence against the accusations leveled at it by Shikutwa, said they dismissed him from service after he was implicated in the theft of the four bags of maize belonging to the company. 

Through lawyer Henry Kenei, the company argued that Shikutwa was busted alongside two other employees while stealing the maize and was arrested before being handed over to the police. 

Kenei said suspects including Shikutwa were arraigned in court where they faced the charge of stealing maize and were sentenced to serve one year at Eldoret GK prison. The court heard that the accused persons completed their sentence two months ago. 

Justice Onyango adjourned the case for further hearing on October 19. 

Courtesy; KNA