Ex-staff seeks Sh1.3m from miller for ‘wrongful dismissal’
By Winston Cheseremi Kenya, September 26, 2023
A former staff of Eldoret-based Ineet Millers Limited wants the company to pay him Sh1.3 million as compensation for unfair and wrongful termination of his service.
Chemia Sikutwa, who was a former machine operator for the company, wants the court to compel the firm to pay him the money for terminating his service without any notice or legal justification.
Shikutwa 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.
The former worker who testified in court told the presiding judge that he was employed at the company in February 2014 on a Sh10,800 monthly salary. He told the court that he joined the Kenya Union of Commercial and Food Allied Workers as a member, something that did not please his employer. This he said, was the genesis of his bad blood with the company management which started to issue threats and intimidations to force him to revoke his membership. “When I refused to revoke my membership in the union, the company management dismissed me from my job as machine operator,” he told the court. Shikutwa said he was falsely accused of stealing four bags of maize, arrested and detained at the Eldoret central police station before he was released without any charges being preferred against him.
But the company in its defense against the accusations leveled at it by Shikutwa, said they dismissed him from service after he was implicated in the theft 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 arrested before being handed over to the police. The case will be heard on October 19.
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.