angige@standardmedia.co.ke
Daisy Cherogony had worked for Kenya Airports Authority at JKIA in Nairobi for 12 years before everything came tumbling down on a rainy April 5 morning.
She was sacked over accusations of misconduct after she asked Education Cabinet Secretray Fred Matiang’i to queue for a routine security check at the airport.
Ms Cherogony was accused of refusing to accord the CS priority service but she denies any wrong doing.
The 37-year-old single mother of one rose through the ranks from a security warden earning Sh14,000 a month to a security supervisor.
Opposed attempts
On May 11, after being on suspension for a month, she was fired over allegations of mistreating and humiliating Dr Matiang’i.
When Saturday Standard contacted her yesterday, she was attending her daughter’s sports day at Busara Academy in Umoja. Ms Cherogony said that her life has been turned topsy-turvy and her nine-year-old daughter risks getting kicked out of school.
She said she served on night shift and all was smooth, until the airport started experiencing increased number of passengers travelling to Mombasa and Kisumu.
Further, while each station was supposed to be manned by eight security personnel that morning they had three to every station. Matiang’i was scheduled to board KQ flight 650 to Kisumu which was due to depart at 6.15 am.
She says that the CS arrived at Terminal 1D a few minutes to time of departure and was flanked by a host of security officers. Some of them did not even have boarding passes but still, they objected to being screened.
Ms Cherogony said other passengers opposed attempts by the CS and his team to skip the queue since it was raining.
“I had been at work the entire night and we were experiencing long queues at the terminal and passengers were complaining bitterly of being bypassed on the queue,” she said.
Controversy
“He (Matiang’i) did not want to queue but wanted special treatment despite the fact that it was raining and other passengers were complaining,” she said.
Ms Cherogony has taken her fight against her employer, KAA, to the corridors of justice and is accusing the CS of making her lose her job.
“I was sacked because of an offense that does not exist and even the charges indicate that I was performing my duties as per the security procedures at the airport,” she said.
In her suspension and dismissal letters signed by Acting Airport Manager Richard Ngovi, she was accused of mistreating and humiliating the CS by asking him to queue which almost made him miss his flight.
Made calls
But Cherogony pleads innocence saying she was merely performing her duties.
According to the Aviation Security Programme, she said, ministers are supposed to undergo normal checks like other passengers.
In the suit filed at the Employment and Labour Relations Court in Nyeri by her lawyer Alex Bizimana, Cherogony says the CS made calls to someone who she believes could be Transport CS James Macharia.
Ms Cherogony was summoned by KAA management and asked to write a statement to explain her action before she was sacked.
“The whole thing took place in two days and I was suspended and later asked to appear for a hearing to defend my action. I was not even given a warning yet I was strictly within the law,” she said.