A driver who reported rogue students to the police and allegedly got fired over the incident wants his employer to pay him Ksh1.9 million for wrongful dismissal.
During the December 2021 holiday, John Maina filed a report claiming that 14 students aboard his matatu were intoxicated.
The driver, one month later, sued his former employer, 2NK Sacco, and asked the Employment and Labour Relations Court to direct them to compensate him.
In the court papers, Maina also wants the Sacco to pay him damages for alleged defamation.
The driver who currently works at the County Government of Nyeri further accused the Sacco management of firing him without due process.
He lamented that he was terminated without any prior notice, reason or justification.
“It was unlawful, unfair, and inhuman having not been served with a notice or warning letter. I was not issued with a certificate of service either upon termination,” Maina stated.
Out of the Ksh1.9 million, Ksh276,000 accounts for unlawful termination, Ksh90,000 for unpaid leave, Ksh265,000 for unpaid rest days, Ksh1 million for underpayment, and Ksh190,000 for house allowance.
"Having served the Sacco for five years, I expected to be accorded due process as provided for in the law," Maina stated in his court documents.
"I qualified for remuneration, under the provision of regulation of wages (general), earning Ksh1,056 per day and a house allowance of Ksh23,000," he added.
Maina further wants the court to compel his former employers to takedown Facebook posts which he opined were defamatory.
“The first defendants, while speaking on behalf of the second, reiterated most of what was published on the Sacco's Facebook page,” he stated.
Maina was recruited by Nyeri Governor Mutahi Kahiga to serve as a driver at the county offices, a few days after his dismissal.
Kahiga noted that the driver's decision to report the drivers was heroic and courageous.
The 32-year-old driver was on his way to the police station when the students jumped from the windows of the moving matatu before he could reach the report desk.
"I have lost a job because of reporting students for using bhang and alcohol in the vehicle, now they are harassing me," he wrote on his social media pages.
In a twist, however, 2NK SACCO management claimed Muthoni had refused to hand over the day's collection to the owner prompting him to be summoned for disciplinary action.
