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A former Kenya Airways (KQ) employee is now seeking Sh15.7 million from the airline for unfair termination and failure to pay a settlement agreed upon during arbitration.

Morris Muindi Musyoki went to court claiming to have been wrongfully dismissed s and failure to pay him his dues.

He said he worked at the airline from December 2004 to July 2012 when he was fired adding that he was later reinstated in October 2017 after appealing to the company.

While testifying in court yesterday, he revealed that there were several summons and meetings between him and the airline which led to his reinstatement.

 He told Employment and Labour Relations Court Judge Jacob Gakeri, that he once had a meeting with Sebastian Mikosz the then newly appointed CEO, Sammy Chepkwony Human Resource Director and Jan Devegt Chief of Operation at KQ headquarters.

He further says that he was summoned by Nicholas Murira, who he claimed was a right-hand man of the then Chief Executive Officer Michael Joseph, in his office although he (Joseph) was still a Safaricom employee.

“He called me and said there was a task I will be given and I will join the staff of JKIA,” he said.

In another summon to Murira’s office he met him with Joseph, and was handed the reinstatement letter dated September 4, 2017 bearing the Group Human Resource Director’s signature.

Previous role

According to the document presented before court, he was given a new role of fuel supervisor which was effective from October 2017 to December 2018 where he would thereafter return to his previous role of loading supervisor.

In that meeting, he said, he was praised for being the most trustworthy person and competent to help the company from making huge loss, but he was warned to work under cover.

In his suit, he stated that he was required to provide the top management with an authentic report on the areas where the company was losing revenue including individual or staff misconduct, illegal tenders or procurement irregularities and come up with recommendations of what the company could adopt to reduce the expenses.

The report, Musyoki further said, was to be relied on by the internal and external auditors to come up with a conclusion report, Deloitte being one of the external auditors hired to advice the company.

He further explained that the report findings were to be presented to the company CEO, board chairperson, Group Human Resource Manager and the company Chief Operations Officer via the emails provided.

Reinstatement letter

Musyoki told the court that they settled on how much he would receive as payment and how the funds would be remitted. “I was to be paid salaries between July 13, 2012 and September 2017, plus five per cent of what the Deloitte company will be paid after submission of the report and another two per cent from company’s revenue,” he said referring to the reinstatement letter.

He further explained that after completing and submitting the report, he was summoned by Latifa Cherono who was the head of business partner, and after arrival he was directed to a private office where he says they discussed the malpractices in the company based on the findings.

Musyoki explained the sudden turn of events where Cherono informed him that he was no longer their employee, and gave him a dismissal letter presented dated June 11, 2018.

In the dismissal letter presented before court it stated that the company had established that the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education presented by the complainant was not authentic and was not from the institution quoted.

“The company views this as gross misconduct and under the Employment Act, section 44(g) and a case such as yours amounts to summary dismissal,” the letter read.

Musyoki now claims, through his suit that he was exploited by the airline by having to produce a report which he says was relied on by Deloitte Audit Company yet his end of the agreement was not fulfilled.

“They never gave me the five per cent of the amount Deloitte was to be paid nor the two per cent of KQ revenue and the salary from 2012 to 2017 as agreed, I was only paid a salary and allowances applicable,” he said.

The national carrier contested some of the documents presented by Musyoki citing that there was no formal communication presented before court to indicate they had several meetings between the KQ senior staff and the complainant.

“There are no formal minutes to prove there were meetings conducted by the two parties, and we cannot rely on communication via emails and print out of the same which are in the computer without certificate of electronic evidence,” KQ stated through their counsel.

KQ further pointed out that there was no documentation proving that there was a payment agreement as he had indicated.

“We cannot rely on a letter presented before court simply because it is bearing the signature of Sammy Chepkwony since that does not prove it is genuine,” the court heard.

The case was adjourned to October 12 when KQ senior managers are expected to testify.

Additional reporting by Gidraph Mwangi