A former director at the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) with varying dates of birth on his passport and identity card, has moved to court accusing the authority of sending him home before reaching the mandatory retirement age of 60 years.
Mr Juma Kiprono Kandie who was until last week, director of human and capital administration at CA, termed the move as illegal and witch-hunt pleading for the court’s intervention.
Mr Kandie, who was earning Sh1 million a month, has been working for CA for the last 23 years and maintains in the petition that all his official documents indicate that he was born on December 12, 1964, and is, therefore, set to retire next year.
“That I am aware and I have further been advised by my advocates on record which I verily believe to be true that this separation letter is illegal as it has the effect of summarily and unfairly terminating my employment without affording any notice,” he said.
Employment court judge Justice Jacob Gakeri certified the case as urgent and directed CA to respond to his petition in two days. The case will be heard on Wednesday.
Mr Kandie has further protested the decision by National Registration Bureau on May 19, invalidating an identity card he acquired on April 3, this year and which allegedly rectified the variance on his date of birth.
This was after he was asked to provide his birth certificate to allow the NRB deliberate on the matter.
“In the meantime, the identity card number 249796802 issued to you on April 3, 2023, stands invalidated until you present the above documents. Please be informed that the correct and valid date of birth according to records by the department is 12/12/1962,” the letter by Lucy Karanja from the registration bureau stated.
An earlier identity card, which he acquired in 1980/81, stated that he was born on December 12, 1962, and the name reads as Chuma Kiprono Kandie while the second one, issued this year said he was born on December 12, 1964 and identifies him as Juma Kiprono Kandie.
Mr Juma said in the petition that all was well at his workplace until early this year when the board started what he terms a witch-hunt in a bid to kick him out of work.
He said he was asked in April to proceed on leave for 30 days to allow investigations on the discrepancy in his year of birth, as indicated in his passport and his identity card.
Mr Kandie said he explained the variance that was caused by an erroneous entry in his year of birth as 1962 instead of 1964.
He says it was because of a part of the mass registration programme that was rolled out by the government in 1980 and 1981.
“That my explanation was that my ID, which I obtained during mass registration of persons, had erroneously indicated my year of birth as 1962 instead of 1964, but that was corrected to reflect 1964 in my first passport, obtained on 10th March 1986,” he said.
Mr Kandie further says all his official documents including his school leaving certificates indicate that he was born in 1964, which he indicated in the employment application form.
He said he was surprised when the director-general of CA Ezra Chiloba sent him on compulsory leave on April 22, a period which was extended before he was served with another letter of interdiction.
