An Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) manager has lost a court bid to overturn a disciplinary demotion imposed after she was accused of improperly authorising the release of confidential commission information.
The Employment and Labour Relations Court ruled that the manager, Agatha Wanjiku, challenged the decision too late and could not reclaim the salary and benefits she lost.
Justice Bernard Manani found that she waited more than three years after the IEBC dismissed her internal appeal before asking the court to invalidate the disciplinary action, leaving the court without jurisdiction to revisit the merits of the demotion.
The court found that the case lodged in December 2023 challenging a 2019 decision had been filed outside the statutory three-year limitation period prescribed for employment disputes.
Ms Wanjiku joined the commission’s predecessor, the Interim Independent Electoral Commission, in 2010 as Manager for Internal Audit and Compliance before being absorbed into the IEBC after the constitutional transition.
Her troubles began in September 2018 when the commission accused her of improperly handling classified information by authorising the photocopying and sharing of confidential documents without the approval of the accounting officer. She was issued a show-cause letter and immediately placed on interdiction.
She denied wrongdoing and maintained that the accounting officer had authorised the release of the information through a text message and said she had merely acted on those instructions.
She also argued that the disciplinary committee was improperly constituted because the same accounting officer later sat on the panel that heard the case.
The disciplinary committee nevertheless found her culpable in April 2019 and demoted her from Grade Four manager to Grade Six regional accountant. Her internal appeal was rejected three months later.
She was earning Sh235,475 before being demoted to Grade Six and her salary reduced to 145,468.
She remained in the lower grades until the commission progressively upgraded her, eventually restoring her to Grade Four in January 2023 as Manager for Risk and Compliance.
However, the IEBC placed her at the entry-level salary of Sh164,258 for that grade instead of the higher pay she had earned before the disciplinary action.
Ms Wanjiku then sued, seeking salary arrears, pension contributions, leave pay, transfer allowance and other benefits. She argued that the demotion was unjustified and that the commission should have restored her previous salary once she returned to Grade Four.
The IEBC defended its actions, saying its Human Resource Policy Manual authorised disciplinary demotions and required employees on interdiction to receive half their basic salary together with medical allowance but no other benefits.
It also said employees promoted back to a higher grade were entitled only to the salary applicable at the point of entry into that grade under the Salaries and Remuneration Commission structure.
The judge said that the court could not reopen the legality of the demotion because the cause of action arose when the commission rejected Ms Wanjiku’s appeal in July 2019.
“The fact that the claimant moved to challenge the propriety of the respondent’s decision to demote her more than three years after the decision had been made dislodges this court’s jurisdiction to inquire into that issue,” the judge said.
The court also upheld the commission’s decision to pay her half salary during interdiction.
“An employee on interdiction shall be paid half basic salary and medical allowance. No other stipulated allowance will be paid,” the judge quoted from the commission’s Human Resource Policy Manual before finding that the payments complied with its rules.
On her claim for restored pay, the court ruled that demotion lawfully reduced her salary and benefits and that returning to Grade Four did not entitle her to resume earning the higher salary attached to her previous service in that grade.
“There is no legitimate basis for her contention that she ought to have been paid what she was earning when the decision to demote her was made,” the judge said before dismissing the suit.