- Programme officer says he has not received his April payslip even after the court stopped the company from replacing him.
- He wants Njoka to be cited for contempt and jailed for six months for allegedly disobeying the court order on his contract.
The salaries of employees at the Kenya National Commission for Unesco delayed due to the effects of Covid-19, the CEO has said.
Evangeline Njoka was responding to an application by a programme director who has sued her for contempt, claiming he was removed from the payroll even after the court extended his contract.
Njoka said following the presidential directive on the amendment of the Income Tax Act they had to re-calculate and apply the new rates to employees’ salaries, which took a while.
She said a number of officers heeded the President's plea to take pay cuts to aid the Emergency Response Fund, and recalculating the entire payroll to accommodate the deductions took considerable time.
But, through Lawyer Danstan Omari, programme officer John Omare says he has not received his April payslip even after the court stopped the company from replacing him.
He wants Njoka to be cited for contempt and jailed for six months for allegedly disobeying the court order on his contract.
In March, Omare got temporary orders stopping the company from replacing him and terminating his contract until his case is determined.
“In total disregard of the court order, Knatcom for Unesco has declined to pay the applicant salary and has not given him his payslip for the month of April,” read court documents.
Omare wants the court to summon Njoka to show cause why she should not be cited for contempt for disobeying court orders.
In his petition, Omare says he signed his contract in February 2016 and knew it would be renewed but without any communication, in February this year, the company advertised his position.
He argues that he has met all the targets and his appraisal has been excellent and he does not know why he was being replaced.
“It is worth noting that in 2017 Knatcom staff appraisal tool I managed to score a rating of 105 per cent. As a matter of fact, a rating of 100 per cent implied that one has a very good performance, and a rating of 101 + implied that one had met all targets and exceeded the same,” Omare says.
He further claims that he wrote to management six months ago asking for a renewal of his contract as well as early this year but got no response.
Omare says he had been promised the contract would be renewed and that was why he was expecting to sign a new one in February. He argues that the company should have communicated to him six months ago about not being able to renew his contract.
Edited by Josephine M. Mayuya