Mzee Joseph Muuo Musau during an interview at Kithimani village in Machakos County on July 25, 2024.
In his heyday, Mzee Joseph Muuo enhanced the delivery of services by local governments through solving disputes pitting local government workers and the administrations they served.
As an area secretary at the giant Kenya Local Government Workers Union, he was part of a small league of powerful union officials who also oversaw the election of top union officials including the union’s current General Secretary, Roba Duba. Things took a turn for the worse after he retired.
The 84-year-old peasant farmer has spent the last 4 years in court battling his former employer over his pension after spending 32 years fighting for the rights of workers.
Somehow, Mzee Muuo did not see his troubles coming. After all he had served the trade union diligently.
His former employer had committed in writing to pay him Sh9,008,429 in gratuity. He was to receive Sh308,429 upfront and the rest in Sh100,000 monthly instalments.
The union paid Mzee Muuo Sh308,429 on January 12, 2016 and the monthly instalments afterwards as it had committed.
Where troubles began
Mzee Joseph Muuo Musau during an interview at Kithimani village in Machakos County on July 25, 2024.
Trouble started in 2019 when his former employer, which has since rebranded to the Kenya County Governments Workers Union after the advent of devolution, halved the monthly disbursements before stopping paying them completely the following year.
He rushed to court in 2021 in a bid to unlock his pension.
Nine years after his retirement, Mzee Muuo does not see an end in sight to his pension dispute after the union moved to challenge a court ruling which favoured the septuagenarian.
“The last four years have been particularly tough for me. Making trips to Nairobi to attend more than 23 court sessions has been draining emotionally, physically, and financially. But I have to fight because it is my pension,” Mzee Muuo told Nation at the sleepy Kithimani Village in Machakos County.
This is where the once powerful trade unionist who was previously a teacher and a spy in President Jomo Kenyatta’s administration has retreated.
He battles tears while explaining how he has run into debts over the years as he struggles to fend for his family, which includes two children in school.
A June 16 ruling by the Employment and Labour Relations Court (Elrc) signalled an end to Mzee Muuo’s woes. Justice James Rika heard that Mzee Muuo was entitled to Sh9,008,429 in pension and that the union had paid him Sh1,957,769 by the time it stopped the payments in November 2020.
The judge directed the union to pay the former trade unionist the remaining Sh7,100,600 plus interest “on the principal sum at court rate, from the date of default, 20th November 2020, till the payment is made in full”.
While celebrating the court ruling, Mzee Muuo told Nation that he is aware of several other similar cases where former colleagues have suffered in the corridors of the union’s boardrooms and courts.
However, his joy was short-lived as the union has since rushed to court to challenge the ruling in a matter which came up for mention on Tuesday.
Whereas it is not contested that Mzee Muuo joined the giant trade union as a junior official serving the Machakos branch on January 3, 1983, and retired as an area secretary based in Nairobi on July 30, 2015 and that he was entitled to pension, court documents seen by Nation show that the bone of contention is the amount of pension in question.
A computation by Michael Kariuki, a former national treasurer at the union, tabled in court shows that Mzee Muuo is entitled to Sh9,008, 429.
However, Tom Kang’ethe, a national treasurer at the union who testified in the case, said the union had erred while computing the gratuity.
Mr Kang’ethe told the court that the union had already overpaid Mzee Muuo since, he said, the former trade unionist was only entitled to Sh 2,200,000. However, Mr Rika dismissed Mr Kang’ethe’s claims as a scheme by the union to deny Mzee Muuo his terminal dues.
“There is no acceptable reason given by the current national treasurer, Kang’ethe, why the payment stopped, and why the balance should not be paid. It is preposterous, in light of the documents originating from the respondent’s treasurer on the subject of gratuity, to tell the court that gratuity was overpaid to the claimant. There is no evidence of overpayment, and no excess payment is counterclaimed by the respondent,” Justice Rika said in his ruling.
“The claimant had no role in computation of gratuity. He relied entirely on computation made by the respondent, through its national treasurer, on advice of the General Secretary. The gratuity he claims was generated entirely by the respondent’s top echelons, not by him. Issues, such as the rate adopted in the computation of the gratuity; the meetings held on approval of payment, whether gratuity was merely a token of the respondent’s appreciation; and whether minutes were signed and stamped, are completely dilatory. They are solely aimed at justifying non-payment of gratuity benefit, that is contractually due to the claimant and which was computed by the respondent,” Justice Rika added.
