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Retired Kisumu Council staff sue over Sh19m dues
Kisumu City Hall. Fourteen retired employees said that they have never received their dues, despite budgetary allocation by the county government of Kisumu.
Fourteen retired employees of the defunct Municipal Council of Kisumu have moved to court seeking orders to compel the county government to release their Sh18.5 million dues.
The group, led by Jeremiah Achola retired in June 2007 and said that they have never received their dues, despite budgetary allocation by the county government of Kisumu.
They stated in court documents that the process of getting their terminal benefits has been a ‘ping pong game’ for the last 17 years, with some of them having died while waiting for the payment.
“That this court be pleased to grant the applicants orders of mandamus to issue to the respondent’s CEC-Finance and Economic Planning and CFO Finance to compel them to pay the applicants Sh18,543,112 being the amount due as of 12/06/2007 and interest accruing at 14 percent per annum till payment in full,” the pensioners said.
The case will be heard before the Employment and Labour Relations court on September 30.
Their lawyer, Kenneth Amondi, wants the court to issue an order compelling the Kisumu County government to release the funds using Section 154(1) of the Public Finance Management Act.
Mr Amondi said the Kisumu County Assembly, in its findings from the county assembly sectoral committee on labour and social welfare dated June 2022, recommended that the CEC Finance and Economic Planning make immediate budgetary provisions for inclusion in the next supplementary budget for conclusive payment of all the claims due to the retirees.
The committee had confirmed the employment status and the fact that they retired on June 12, 2007, after verifying documents from the various scattered agencies handling the issue of their terminal benefits.
He added that the report was tabled at the county assembly of Kisumu as captured in the Hansard Report dated June 29, 2022.
The retirees said they are aware that from the recommendations, the county allocated Sh16 million towards the settlement of their dues, which was approved in the Kisumu County Appropriations Bill, 2023.
Despite being approved under the Kisumu County Appropriations Bill 2023, the county officials have kept promising the retirees the payments, but nothing has been forthcoming.
“The respondents are subjecting the applicants to a life of economic hardship and squalor which amounts to inhuman and degrading treatment contrary to Article 25 of the constitution which declares those rights as unlimited,” Mr Achola said in an affidavit.
