Police officer sacked yet he had clean record in service

NAIROBI: A labour court found a police officer alleged to have been soliciting Sh200 bribe was unjustly fired.

Anthony Njoroge, in 2013, obtained court orders after his appeal to be heard by his bosses fell on deaf ears.

The officer was dismissed from service on December 8, 2010, but he appealed 20 days later.

But at the time of him moving to court in 2012, his bosses had not given him a reply on what they thought of his appeal.

Ironically, his dismissal letter read that he was an officer who had a clean record in service.

It happens that Njoroge had been assigned to patrol the Nakuru-Nairobi highway on a motorbike.

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He landed in trouble after he allegedly took the motorbike for repairs without notifying his bosses.

It was also alleged he solicited Sh200 from a motorist but the claim was not proven.

Njoroge was apprehended by anti-corruption officers who thought he was taking bribes from lorry drivers he was stopping on the highway. Apparently, he was searching them for bhang after he got a tipoff.

"The court has found that the dismissal was excessive in view of the claimant's clean record of service and the established misconducts," Judge Byrum Ongaya ruled.

The judge, however, ruled that Njoroge should be reprimanded for failing to establish that he had the green light to use the motorbike on the fateful day and at the same time for not explaining to his colleagues on stakeout.

"The claimant did not establish that he had authority to use the motorbike and he did not give any reason for not informing other officers about his mission to apprehend the alleged criminals. That conduct was obviously suspicious but in the opinion of the court, it did not justify the ultimate employer's punishment of dismissal," ruled the judge.

"In the circumstances, the court finds that the claimant should be reengaged into the police service with imposition of a severe reprimand under a bond to observe and not to breach any Kenya Police Service Regulations for 12 months," the judge ruled.