This archive report was first published on 11 July 2019.
On July 11, 2019, the Labour Court ordered the National Bank of Kenya (NBK) to pay three former employees Sh11.2 million in compensation for wrongful termination.
The court's decision came after investigations revealed that a member of staff at the bank's ICT Department had withdrawn Sh330 million from various government-related accounts and credited the same to two accounts held by NBK in March 2013.
Although the breach was averted, the court found that the bank's management had unfairly terminated the employment of Jimmy Labi, Sylvester Mutuli, and Joseph Karumba.
Justice Maureen Onyango awarded the three former employees compensation for their gross salary, with Jimmy Labi and Sylvester Mutuli receiving Sh5.69 million and Sh4.7 million respectively, and Joseph Karumba set to receive Sh800,000.
The court found that the bank had failed to provide the employees with adequate opportunity to respond to charges before taking action against them.
According to the judgement, the termination of employment was unfair both substantively and procedurally.
Justice Onyango stated, 'I find the termination of employment of the claimants unfair both substantively and procedurally. The three claimants are all entitled to compensation having concluded that they were unfairly terminated and considering they each worked for the respondent for quite a long time.'
