Labour Court Judge Justice James Rika during a past hearing. PHOTO | KEVIN ODIT | NMG The Employment and Labour Court has upheld a decision by the Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) to fire one of its managers for misuse of a company car.
Justice James Rika acted fairly in terminating the contract of its former administration manager Frederick Oduor as provided in Sections 41 and 45 of the Employment Act.
"The minutes of the meeting show a fair hearing was accorded to the claimant. The Claimant did not apply to bring his own witnesses, or protest at the hearing, that he was dissuaded from cross-examining any witness. It was correctly concluded that the claimant was involved in misuse of a public asset, for his private purpose," said the judge.
Mr Odour’s employment was terminated in January 2018 after he was found guilty of gross misconduct for flouting the firm’s transport policy.
Evidence tabled in court by KenGen showed Mr Oduor used an official company car to run his personal errands including picking members of his family from the Kisumu International Airport.
The misuse came to light after its driver hit and killed a pedestrian in Yala township on July 22,2018 as he drove to pick Mr Ogutu from the airport.
