The Nairobi Hospital./FILENairobi Hospital has suffered yet another blow after it was
ordered to pay its former CEO Gordon Odundo Sh72.9 million for wrongful
sacking.
The Employment and Labour Relations Court found Odundo’s summary dismissal in 2019 unjustified and unlawful.
Justice Njagi Marete ruled that the sequence of events leading to Odundo’s sacking did not meet the requirements of substantive and procedural fairness as required in law.
Odundo had told the court that his sacking had been predetermined and that the hospital did not accord him a fair chance to defend himself.
The court noted that the atmosphere in which the CEO was operating had already been poisoned and soured after an attempted storming of his office by lawyers.
“A case of unfair and unlawful termination of employment therefore ensues in the circumstances, and I hold as such,” Justice Marete ruled.
The court awarded Odundo three-month’s salary in lieu of notice of Sh14 million and 12 months compensation for unlawful dismissal amounting to Sh56 million.
He was also awarded a refund for unlawful deductions amounting to Sh2,131,984 and another Sh422,100 being payment for outstanding and untaken leave.
In total, the court ordered that Odundo be paid Sh72,904,094.
The judgment comes barely months after the hospital lost another case against another former CEO James Nyamongo who was awarded Sh100 million for wrongful dismissal in August.
A few weeks ago, another former CEO Allan Pamba obtained a judgment directing the hospital to pay him Sh206 million for unlawful termination.
Odundo who was hired in 2016 had been headhunted from Getrude’s Children Hospital where he was serving as CEO.
He said during the recruitment process, he was promised that his employment would last until retirement, a promise that he said made him resign from his job at Gertrude where he had been in employment for 13 years.
Odundo told the court that he was always willing, able and ready to serve the hospital on a renewed contract for four years that would have lasted until retirement.
In December 2018 while in a meeting in his office, security officers accompanied by lawyers representing the hospital attempted to storm his office to remove him.
The court noted that Odundo’s removal was dramatic and attracted attention that humiliated him.
The hospital had asked the court to dismiss the case saying Odundo had been sacked for gross misconduct after defying multiple directives to surrender personnel file therefore obstructing internal administrative processes.
