Former Safaricom Employee Awarded Sh2.3 Million for Wrongful Dismissal

The High Court has ordered Safaricom to pay a former employee Sh2.3 million compensation for wrongful dismissal.

Michael Karanja served as the principal officer for fraud detection and analysis at Safaricom until November 2017 when he was fired over alleged involvement in graft.

The telco accused him of assisting a third party in irregular MPesa tills from which he allegedly received funds contrary to the Safaricom Risk Management Code of Ethics.

The company also claimed that Karanja was involved in conflict of interest dealings involving Safaricom MPesa agents.

Karanja sued the company arguing that he was not taken through any disciplinary hearing before dismissal.

Justice Jacob Gakeri ruled in favor of Karanja, saying that Safaricom failed to provide evidence on the reasons for the termination of his employment.

The judge noted that the suspension letter issued to the plaintiff was exceedingly general and that he was not issued a notice to show cause.

"The Claimant never received a specific narrative on the allegations made against him. The results of the alleged investigation are also not on record nor is there evidence that a copy of the report was sent to the Claimant," said the judge.

"Evidently, Safaricom may have had good reason to terminate or dismiss the Claimant but did not pursue the process to its logical conclusion.”

The Sh2.3 million compensation amount includes Sh1.7 million (five months’ gross salary, Sh347,000 (one month’s salary in lieu of notice), and salary for 27 days in June 2017.