Woman’s painful wait for terminal dues

As Mama Mary Mkeke, 66, awaits her service termination dues, she walks around a heap of rubble at a small compound in Sofia village, Voi sub-county. One would hardly imagine the debris was once a beautiful house, in which she brought up her children. Heavy rains in early 2012 led to the collapse of the house. She and her daughters narrowly escaped with their lives. They then moved to a tiny rental house where they live to date. “I cannot rebuild my house because I am still waiting for my terminal dues from the government after I was laid off in 2000,” she says. Mkeke was among thousands of workers sent home by the government between 1998 and 2002 during a radical donor-backed initiative, Civil Service Reform Programme, meant to streamline civil service in a bid to cut expenditure and excess workforce. The exercise saw over 10,000 workers laid off. Working as subordinate staff in the Ministry of Lands under the Adjudication department in 1979, Mkeke used her wages to educate two of her daughters up to Form Four. Through prudent saving, she also managed to buy a small plot in Sofia village. She later put up a two-roomed house where they moved in. Her ailing mother also joined her family. Dreams shattered The future looked bright. She had planned to use her savings to put up two rental houses but all her dreams were shattered when termination of service letter arrived at her place of work in Wundanyi in 2000. “I was shocked and nearly went into depression. It was so sudden and brutal,” she recalls. To add insult to injury, she only received Sh40,000 as her send-off package despite serving the government for 21 years. “For 21 years, I worked faithfully for my country and after all that, they gave me Sh40,000,” she says. Afterwards, hard times started knocking. When her house collapsed, there was no money for repairs. Her family moved to a rented room nearby. She says food and other expenses have become difficult to meet, forcing her last two children to drop out of school due to lack of fees. Davis Mwadigha, the county chair of the civil servants retrenched during that programme, says Mama Mkeke’s plight reflects what hundreds of their members have been going through since they were fired by the government. Initially, he started with 133 members but more than 28 have died waiting for their dues. He said that in 2001, the affected workers sued the government for wrongful dismissal demanding compensation totalling Sh1.57 billion. They got a boost after the Employment and Labour Relations Court declared that the Civil Service Reform Programme was illegal and unconstitutional. Justice Nderi Nduma, on June 2, 2017, issued a decree that supported the workers’ claims of being unlawfully dismissed. He ordered that amounts payable to claimants be filed in court within two months. Mwadigha, however, claims since the ruling nothing much has happened except invitations for appearance in court for further directions. The next appearance is set for tomorrow— October 9. “We have exhausted all the money we had to fight this battle,” he said.Mama Mkeke is urging the government to speed up payment of their dues. —KNA

Woman’s painful wait for terminal dues

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Woman’s painful wait for terminal dues

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