Two senior military officers who were dismissed unlawfully have a reason to smile after the High Court directed the government to pay them their terminal benefits amounting to Ksh60 million.
The government’s bid to block the payment awarded on November 18, 2014, suffered a major setback when the court this week found that the termination of Major-General (rtd) Enoch Sasia and Lieutenant-Colonel (rtd) Barnabas Rono was illegal. The court ruled that Maj-Gen Sasia and Lt-Col Rono were forced to resign before attaining the retirement age after they were accused of neglecting duties and disobedience.
The genesis of the case is a contract that existed between the government and the Union Logistics Company dated March 8, 2008, for the provision of packaging and international freight forwarding services to the Department of Defence.
According to the contract, the Kenya Air Force (KAF), within the command of the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF), instructed Union Logistics to ferry spare parts to Nairobi from Jordan and the United States. The court heard that Union Logistics transported the parts and KAF prepared the necessary documents to facilitate payment.
On receiving the bills for payment, a chief of logistics pointed out disparities in the documents indicating a possibility of inflated figures. An audit report dated August 2010 was prepared by the chief of audit for the Chief of the General Staff indicated that the over-billing and subsequent overpayment was authored by Union Logistics.
The audit report exonerated the two army officersand even commended Maj-Gen Sasia for attempting to correct the process.
(DAILY NATION)
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