A former anti-graft police officer has been awarded Sh620,000 for illegal termination of employment at the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission.
The commission fired Robert Karani in April 2013 after eight years' service.
Karani, who had been hired in 2005, sued the agency on June 19, 2013, for terminating his contract although it had not been lawfully constituted following the dissolution of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission.
He told the Employment and Labour Relations court that the termination, through a letter from the chief executive, disadvantaged his career development.
By the time the contract was terminated, Karani was a senior police sergeant, earning a gross monthly salary of Sh124,000 at the commission.
During the transition, the Ministry of Justice deployed him to the EACC as an operations assistant.
The agency vetted him and informed him on April 10, 2013, that he had been found suitable to serve as the operations assistant.
But a few days later, he was informed that the contract had been terminated.
The EACC also informed the Inspector General of Police of the decision and asked him to redeploy Karani to the Police Service.
Aggrieved, Karani moved to court, citing violation of his constitutional right and unlawful termination of employment.
He questioned the authority of the chief executive officer to terminate his contract and redeploy him to the Police Service in the absence of a properly constituted commission.
However, it was the argument of the EACC that the CEO exercised a supervisory responsibility in terminating the officer’s contract and having him redeployed to the Police Service.
In his ruling, Justice Radido Stephen said the decision to terminate staff contracts was the responsibility of the commission and not the CEO's.
“The secretary/chief executive officer, in purporting to terminate the petitioner’s contract, acted outside the legal scope of his authority. It was a unilateral and arbitrary act,” Radido said.
He subsequently awarded Karani five months’ gross salary compensation.
“Considering the contract had only five more months to run, the court assessed compensation to be equivalent of five months’ gross salary.”
- mwaniki fm
