A court has ordered the Nairobi City Council to pay a widow a total of Ksh17 million for illegally auctioning her three-bedroomed house in Kariobangi South.
In his ruling, justice Joseph Sergon stated that the County officials had until by May 31, 2021, to pay 87-year-old Phanice Ondeche Asitiba.
The court directed Jairus Musumba (acting county secretary), Lydia Kwamboka (county attorney), Allan Esabwa Igambi (executive committee member finance) and Halake Wako ( finance officer) to pay up, failure to which they would all be sent to jail.
The house in question was auctioned in 1993 when she was accused of having a rent arrears of Ksh15,338.
However, through her lawyer, Ms Ondeche convinced the court that she had no outstanding debts.
Lawyer Wangira Okoba told the court that the auction was illegal and infringed the rights of his client.
The house had been allocated by the Nairobi City County to Ondeche's late husband who was a quarry worker at the time.
Since his death, the court heard that Ms Ondeche had continued to pay the rent without fail.
The ruling came just months after a Labour Court ordered a company to pay Ksh1.4 million to a former worker for unfair dismissal.
The court found that the company unfairly fired the former employee who was then a receptionist despite having been told by her doctors to take a pregnancy-related sick off.
The judge ruled that the former employer ignored the professional advice issued by a doctor who was attending to her.
