Ex-Safaricom employee awarded Sh2.3m for irregular sacking

A court has ordered Safaricom to pay Sh2.3million compensation to a former senior employee it irregularly sacked over alleged involvement in graft.

Michael Karanja, who served as a senior detective at the telco, was sacked in November 2017 over various allegations such as assisting a third party in irregular M-Pesa tills from which he allegedly received funds contrary to the Safaricom Risk Management Code of Ethics.

The company had also claimed that Mr Karanja, who was the principal officer for fraud detection and analysis, was involved in various conflict of interest dealings involving Safaricom M-Pesa agents.

The compensation amount comprises 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.

Justice Jacob Gakeri said Safaricom failed to provide evidence on the reasons for the dismissal of Mr Karanja.

The judge found that the suspension letter issued to the employee was “exceedingly general” and that he was not issued with 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," he stated.

The evidence adduced by Mr Karanja was that he was not taken through any disciplinary hearing before dismissal. Safaricom did not participate in the case, hence the suit was undefended.

In the letter of summary dismissal, Safaricom stated that investigations had established that Mr Karanja failed to follow the M-Pesa agent penalty guidelines in freezing and unfreezing accounts.