Two former employees of Kenyan embassy in Washington DC accuse Ambassador Robinson Njeru Githae of unfairness

Drama continues to rock the Kenyan embassy in Washington DC few after the consulate was accused of not following the law in the issuance of Identity Cards to Kenyan living abroad.Now two former employees of the embassy are crying foul for what they term as unlawful dismissal from their work accusing Ambassador Robinson Njeru Githae of unfairness in his decision.READ: Kenyans to dig deeper into their pockets after MPs approve new taxesSpeaking to the Nation, the two Mr. Jafred Musamba and Mr. Joseph Asweto are now calling upon Ambassador Macharia Kamau, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to intervene on the matter saying they were fired before their contracts expired. In communication letters from the embassy indicate that the duo were fired on the basis that they attained retirement age.They were relieved off their duties on August, 24 2018.“Records held in this office indicate that you attained the retire age of 60 years in January 1, 2015.In accordance with section D. 21 of the Human Resources Policies and the Procedures Manual for the Public Service and Local Staff Regulations, one is required to retire from the service on attainment of the retirement age,” read partly the letter from the embassy. In their defense, the duo acknowledged the fact that indeed they are at least 60 years of age but insisted that the retirement age is 60 and not as alleged by the embassy further saying that they are not civil servants and therefore that clause do not affect them.“In any case, our contracts bear no clause stating that the retirement age.The embassy has therefore violated the two-year contracts which expire in October,2019, by summarily firing us as if we had committed a criminal offence,” they said.In a quick rejoinder, Amb. Githae said that the embassy acted within its mandate saying Mr. Asweto joined the workforce in Washington DC retiring from public service back here in home.“The truth is that the people we let go, including the two gentlemen, were supposed to have retired a long time ago. In fact, Mr Asweto came here after retiring from the civil service at home so he should be enjoying his retirement benefits,” said Amb. Githae.It has appeared that another female employee was also dismissed alongside the two and all of them were recruited locally. Githae defended himself from accusation that he was creating positions for his relatives.“As you may already know, apart from attaining the retirement age, the two gentlemen were also the longest serving. It was only fair to start from the top down. If you go our website, you will see their positions advertised. We will conduct a fair and open recruitment process for these positions” added the Ambassador.However the two dismissed gentlemen have not sought legal redress on the issue saying they want the relevant ministry to act first.“First of all, we are appealing to the ministry headquarters to intervene before it goes that far. Secondly, we need to be heard, especially by the ministry headquarters, which should come to our rescue because we did not deserve this. Even if it was not normal retirement, there’s always a notice to retire in a year. This was not followed,” said Mr. Asweto.It is emerging that there are unclear ways of handling some issues at the embassy with reports indicating that locally recruited employees of Kenya mission to the UN in New York are supposed to retire once they attain 65 years with an extension of three years and also a 13 month bonus pay after retirement.Mr. Musumba is asking the ministry to look into the matter and set clear regulations on retirement to avoid recurrence of such scenarios.“My prayer is that the ministry will look into this matter and offer us a possible life line to allow us to retire honorably. I also pray that the ministry will find a way to harmonize the terms of locally engaged staff at the Kenya mission to the UN, the embassy in Washington, DC and the consulate in Los Angeles to prevent similar cases,” he said.Mr. Asweto said the embassy in its recent drive to issues IDs by engaging agents was illegal and the ambassador had been advised against the plan but did not listen.“It’s purely illegal. The way it is being done is illegal and should be stopped forthwith. The ambassador was advised by some of his senior staff at the embassy not to do it but he didn’t listen,” said Asweto.