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Demoted Railways staff get reprieve

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Activist Okiya Omtatah. FILE PHOTO | NMG

The Employment and Labour relations Court has suspended the demotion of senior Kenya Railways Corporation (KRC) staff and also frozen an ongoing recruitment to fill vacant positions at the State agency.

Activist Okiya Omtatah moved to court arguing that the restructuring is discriminative and unconstitutional, noting that affected staff were not given adequate time to prepare for the suitability tests that led to their alleged ‘demotion’.

The sudden restructuring, which is linked to the poor performance of the standard gauge railway, saw long- serving finance manager Alfred Matheka re-assigned as accounts manager, corporate affairs manager Mary Oyuke was re-assigned as assistant corporate affairs manager, while ICT manager Ibrahim Mwadime was named assistant ICT manager.

On Tuesday Mr Matheka also filed a separate suit against his employer, arguing that he has been demoted despite his track record of excellence.

READ: Former Kenya Railways staff sue to block sale of homes

While Mr Matheka obtained orders suspending filling of his position, Mr Omtatah a few minutes later was granted orders suspending the entire process.

“An interim order be and is hereby issued suspending the staff restructuring ongoing at the Kenya Railways Corporation pending the hearing and determination of the Petition herein,” reads the order granted by Justice Wasilwa.

Mr Matheka in court papers accused the KRC managing director of orchestrating malicious disciplinary proceedings against him in October last year.

He said the move was meant to pressure him to pay Sh30 million to a firm that has provided supervisory services on the construction of an office block in Westlands.