A case where a former security manager at the Muthera farm had moved to court challenging his dismissal from employment will be mentioned on December 11.
The industrial court sitting in Nakuru yesterday adjourned the hearing of the case after the complainant, Josephat Mpoe, urged the court to give him more time to prepare for the case.
Justice Stephen Radido granted the complainant time ahead of the hearing. The respondent was also conspicuously missing in court yesterday.
In the case, Mpoe has sued David Waiganjo, a son to the late Cabinet minister Mbiu Koinange over alleged wrongful dismissal.
Mpoe claims he worked as a security head at 4,923-acre Muthera farm having been appointed on January 2011 by the four administrators of the estate.
Trouble started in September last year when one of the administrators, David Waiganjo, wrote a letter suspending Mpoe on allegations that he was embezzling funds in the farm.
Waiganjo hired Mpoe’s nephew, Raphael Mpoe, on interim basis on October 4, 2013, before replacing him with Edward Wanjohi a few days later.
Mpoe faulted the suspension as it did not give the specific period within which the suspension would take effect and that it also did not mention whether he would be entitled to any salary for the said period.
He noted the suspension contravened a court order issued by Justice William Musyoka directing that the status quo at the farm remains until the determination of a succession case before the High court.
According to Mpoe, he was not granted a hearing before suspension, thus terming it as a breach of the principles of natural justice and of the Labour act.
Mpoe alleged that he is cultivating and breeding livestock on a 5-acre plot within the farm where he gets his proceeds for his own subsistence and that of his family.
The farm head has urged the court to compel his employer to pay him his dues amounting to over Sh3 million since his dismissal.
He also wants the letter of dismissal termed as unprocedural as his family is likely to suffer irreparable harm.