Disgraced Kenya Ports Authority workers now sacked and evicted from staff houses

Panic gripped the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) after some of the 132 workers accused of forging certificates to gain employment and secure promotions began to receive dismissal letters. This follows the collapse of their last battle to get amnesty and keep their jobs.

And there is fresh fear that a new investigation may be launched to unearth top, middle and low-level employees believed to have survived the purge that began in 2012.

The Standard has established that 132 employees, including 25 managers affected by the worst scandal at KPA in recent years were ordered to clear from port offices, houses and premises by yesterday. Despite evidence of fraud they have been earning salaries.

The workers are also facing investigation by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) for illegal enrichment amid reports that arrests and prosecutions could begin very soon.

The Standard established that the KPA board made the decision to sack them on Thursday after the Industrial Court declined to stop the company from disciplining them on September 22.

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Speaking to The Standard on phone yesterday, KPA Board of Directors Chairman Marsden Madoka said: "The board of directors met on Thursday and made the resolution to have them removed from the payroll and I expect the concerned managers to have acted accordingly."

The exact number of employees caught in the cheating scandal has been controversial amid claims that some names were removed from the original list.

In a stunning ruling, Industrial Court Judge James Rika wondered why disciplinary action against conniving workers has taken too long to be implemented when an order by the Public Service Commission to authenticate certificates was given on September 1, 2012. According to KPA, 132 workers were found to hold false papers out of which 107 were unionisable.

Three died after KPA disclosed the list in February this year, two deserted and one resigned yet court papers show only 126 workers were under investigation. The conflict in numbers has been difficult to reconcile.

The judge noted that "secretaries who were previously caught up in such crimes (of cheating)" were pardoned. He dismissed a plea by the Dock Workers Union (DWU) to pardon the affected workers.

Justice Rika said pardoning this group would amount to rewarding crime and promoting misrule. He said the affected workers had admitted forging papers to gain documents and uttered unjustifiable excuses for that. Rika said the excuses cannot absolve the culprits from equal treatment before the law.

"Justice and equity follow the law. The maxim that a person ought not to derive advantage from his own injurious behaviour cuts across all fields of law. There are statutes preventing criminals from retaining profits garnered from their crime. Murderers do not inherit the estates of their victims, widows who create their own widowhood through crime do not inherit their deceased husbands' properties," he ruled.

Yesterday, affected employees started receiving the letters signed by KPA Human Resource and Administrative General Manager Salim Chingambwi. The letters were copied to the security department, which is expected to enforce the sacking by deleting their biometric entrance codes.