Former Staff Back Up Claims of Financial Mismanagement and Labour Exploitation at Frejed Engineering

Just hours after we exposed a deepening wage standoff within Frejed Engineering Services Limited , a contractor handling multi-million shilling housing projects under the State Department for Housing, new revelations have emerged from former employees, pointing to a broader and more entrenched pattern of non-payment across the company’s operations. Former Frejed Engineering staff support earlier reports of wage suppression, fund diversion, and labour exploitation on housing projects.

The Nairobi-based engineering firm, currently active on Affordable Housing Programme sites in Isiolo, Kinangop, and Murang’a County, is now facing allegations that stretch beyond the current sites, with reports of unpaid salaries dating as far back as 2022.

A former staff member who worked with Frejed between August 2022 and January 2023 says they were only paid for four out of six months.

Despite receiving a formal termination letter and serving the full notice period, they report never receiving final dues. Similar frustrations reportedly led others to exit without notice, citing wage delays as the primary reason.

These new claims align with initial accounts from internal sources currently deployed on the government housing sites, who reported going unpaid for over four months despite continuous work on active projects.

This is happening even as Frejed Engineering is said to have received certificate approvals for government disbursements amounting to tens of millions per site, meant to cover wages and site operations.

However, staff attached to these housing programmes say they have been left out of payroll allocations, with salaries instead being redirected to other departments within the company.

Frejed, which operates from Ramco Court on Mombasa Road, maintains an active contract portfolio with public institutions including Kenya Airports Authority, Central Bank of Kenya, New KCC, and KenGen.

But despite these contracts and ongoing cash flow, wage complaints now span across past and present projects, indicating possible systemic mismanagement or deliberate withholding of salaries.

The company, led by Managing Director Paul Weda and Project Manager Stephen Vandika, has built a public profile of delivering quality engineering solutions across nine countries.

Yet internally, workers describe a reality defined by financial opacity, prolonged silence, and inconsistent treatment across teams.

Previous reports indicated that staff were instructed to continue reporting to work despite not being paid, with no timelines or communication on when their dues would be settled.

Allegations have also emerged suggesting that funds intended for the Affordable Housing staff may be getting diverted to sustain unrelated payroll or internal operations, further aggravating frustrations among affected employees.

Frejed’s method of paying salaries through mobile money platforms such as M-Pesa, even for technical staff, has also raised questions about transparency and compliance with employment and tax regulations, particularly given the scale of public money involved.

Despite the growing uproar, Frejed Engineering continues full-scale work on the sites in question and remains a beneficiary of ongoing government contracts.

The sustained nature of these complaints, now coming from both current and former workers, has sharpened calls for government agencies to investigate the company’s financial management practices, especially how project-linked payments are handled once disbursed.

The broader concern now revolves around whether public funds meant for national infrastructure development are being appropriately administered, or quietly redirected at the expense of labourers and technical staff responsible for delivering these projects on the ground.

As more voices come forward, Frejed Engineering finds itself at the centre of mounting pressure over not just its labour practices, but the credibility of the very contracts that continue to sustain it.