A caretaker who worked at Neno Evangelism Church, headed by controversial Pastor James Ng’ang’a was on Thursday, February 4, awarded Ksh 300,000 compensation by the Labor Courts in Nairobi for being unfairly sacked.
Christopher Kinama was fired in 2017 over a dispute in car park fees collection.
According to Justice Maureen Onyango, Ng’ang’a’s explanation for firing Kinama was contradictory and lacked merit.
The court ruled that the ex-employee was not given an opportunity by the church management to argue his side of the story before being sacked as ruled by the judge.
Kinama sued Neno, saying that the church claimed to have called and given him a second chance for his job, yet the letter claimed to have been sent to him was dated November 18, 2016, while he had been fired on January 25, 2017. This was termed to be humanly impossible for the letter to be drafted before firing.
“With utmost respect to Apostle James Ng’ang’a, the author of the said letter, I am not convinced that it was humanly possible for him to predict that such events would take place and write the letter in advance. I have carefully perused the said letter. It is dated November 18, 2016. As indicated in the pleadings, the events occurred on January 25, 2017," Justice Onyango ruled.
It was in 2007 that Kinama was employed by Neno, earning a gross salary of Ksh 8000. By the time he was fired in 2017, he was earning Ksh 15,000.
According to Kinama’s narration, Pastor Ng’ang’a reached out to him on January 24, 2017, and told him that he was in charge of the church canteen as well as collecting the parking fees.
At that time, the church had employed someone as the car attendant, which brought about issues on who should be collecting the parking fees.
Ng’ang’a later called demanding an explanation from the caretaker on why he had not followed his earlier instructions. Kinama answered by telling the pastor that the cashier at the church had said that she would be in charge of the fees.
The caretaker also told Ng’ang’a that they had asked the church manager to intervene into the matter. This request had hit a dead end as the matter was not looked into.
Even after the explanation that Kinama gave Ng’ang’a, the flamboyant pastor did not consider them and fired him.
In December last year, Pastor Ng’ang’a was in the limelight for careless driving, which cost a woman her life.
The controversial cleric and three others had appealed to strike out the case, arguing that an appeal was filed outside the 14-day timeline provided by the law.
