House appoints panel to solve dispute between senator Keroche, staff

 Nakuru Senator Tabitha Karanja. [File, Standard]

Parliament has appointed three member panel to hear an employment dispute between Nakuru Senator Tabitha Karanja and 17 former staff.

A letter from the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC), signed by National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang’ula as the commission’s chair, announced the appointment of MPs Rachel Ameso, Faith Gitau, and Senator Johnson Muthama to the Arbitration Panel.

The letter seen by The Standard, dated November 6, 2024, is signed by Jeremiah Nyegenye, the Clerk of the Senate.

It is addressed to the Senator and the complainants, and informs them of the forum, stating the panel was formed pursuant to a complaint raised on October 24, 2024 by a staff from the Senator’s office.

It states that the panel will hear and determine the employment dispute and contact the staff and Karanja for further information.

On October 24, 2024 the employees from the office of the Senator wrote to the Speaker through PSC, appealing for intervention over alleged breach of contract by the Senator.

“We have written to the clerk on several occasions seeking his intervention on a number of issues contained in our respective letters. We are disappointed that it has taken longer than we earlier anticipated,” lead the letter signed by 14 of the 17.

They raised concerns of underpayment, noting that some staff receive half salary of Sh11,000 per month instead of Sh25,000 which they allegedly signed for in their respective contracts.

They claimed they had not received salary for some months.

“There have been unlawful terminations of contracts and some staff were fired on unfavourable grounds without due process,” they alleged.

Further, they claimed that the termination of contracts was done by the office manager instead of the employer, who is the Senator.

The employees raised concerns of unprofessionalism, alleging that staff have worked under duress and female staff have been mishandled.

“Our salaries have been withheld and we are currently not receiving salaries yet we have never been served with termination letters and our names are still on the payroll submitted to PSC,” they submitted.

The employees said that some employees, whose contracts were terminated were allegedly tricked to clear with the office, with their dues pending to date.

“It has proved futile getting the Senator’s attention to address our concerns; and because of her insincerity and lack of good will, we seek your intervention,” they deposed.

They threatened to take legal action if the arbitration panellist is not appointed.

Prior to the joint letter, one of the employees, Nancy Wanjama, wrote to PSC on September 18, complaining of unfair termination.

She said she had been employed as a gardener from October 1, 2022 and she signed a 60-month contract.

However, she said she received a backdated termination letter that gave no reasons and when she inquired, she got no answer.

In her letter dated September 17, 2024, Senator Karanja shifted blame to Nakuru County Manager, saying since his appointment, her office has received complaints from former employees, members of the public and institutions.

She said she needed legal advisory regarding the management of her office including the fact that termination letters were never issued to her former employees.

“The same caused terminated employees to continue working leading to salary arrears. The manager also failed to update the employees register and forward the same to the liaison office,” she told PSC.

She also claimed that the alleged mismanagement caused consolidated salary payment where a salary for one person was split to pay two people.