Kisumu Court declines to stop Choppies Supermarket case

A case in which Choppies Supermarket has been sued by its former employees over redundancies will proceed into full hearing despite attempts to halt it.

This is after Kisumu Senior Principal Magistrate Robinson Ondieki dismissed an application to have the suit halted until a similar matter is concluded in Nairobi.

“The matter will proceed on the April 4 this year,” Ondieki stated in his ruling.

The supermarket on Wednesday filed a notice of motion to have proceedings of the suit against them stayed to wait for the completion of a suit they had in Nairobi.

“Subsequently the honorable court be pleased to issue orders of stay of proceedings in the claim herein and determination of Nairobi ELRC CAUSE 861 of 2019,” part of the application stated.

However, the ex-employees through their advocate Onyango disputed the application stating that was a means of delaying the case and blocking them from getting justice.

“This is a delay tactic, they were served with a hearing notice on December 19, we pray that we proceed with the suit,” Onyango told the court.

543 had sued the supermarket in Nairobi after they had been issued with notices that declared them redundant.

The supermarket also sought that the orders issued on December 9, 2,019 that required them to deposit Sh7 million as security be revoked.

It stated that if it deposited the amount, they would be unfair to the workers in Nairobi who had filed a suit against them.

“The decision of depositing the amount in court will affect the claimants in Nairobi, it will be unfair to them,” she said.

In a suit in Nairobi, the supermarket was also required to deposit Sh28.6 million, the same amount it owed the 543 workers as surety.

Senior Principal Magistrate Robinson Ondieki had earlier ordered that the Supermarket deposit Sh7 million instead of the Sh12 million it owed the workers based on the state of the economy.