Couple’s dirty linen in public puts job in jeopardy

A plum job, love gone sour and myriad cases sum up an employment saga in the corridors of justice that has drawn a parastatal, the AG, Director of Public Prosecution and investigators.

Catherine Nyakoboke Nyang’au, a senior manager in a parastatal under the Ministry of Education, is alleged to have got her job as a chief accountant in a skewed process including a forged letter from her former employer. She works at Kenya National Commission for UNESCO.

Through court papers, she accuses her estranged husband Joseph Oundo of witch hunt, adding that he is the source of her employment predicament and investigations by Directorate of Criminal Investigations.

“My estranged husband with whom we have two children, has serious anger management, control, and violence issues. As a result of the violence I left the household, to which he swore to make my employer terminate my employment,” she claims in court papers filed before Labour Court in Nairobi.

She is accused of forging a letter from her former employer Avic Shantui, which secured her the plum position. In her case filed by lawyer Ishmael Nyaribo, the woman claims she reported the alleged accusations to the DCI on September 30, 2019. A month later, her employer gave her a show-cause letter and sent her on compulsory leave.

KNATCOM CEO Evangeline Njoka said a disciplinary committee required Nyakoboke to reply to the allegations against her, which are also being investigated by the DCI and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission.

Her husband however claims he had warned against forging the letter of recommendation signed by her former colleague at Avic Shantui.

The recommendation for external investigations emanated from the Attorney General’s office and which DCI ought to establish whether Nyakoboke and those involved in her employment process took part in the forgery and bribery allegations.