Judge Stephen Radido of the Labour Court has ruled that the dismissal of former Youth and Gender Principal Secretary Lilian Omollo was unlawful.
The judge said that Ms Omollo’s rights were breached as he ordered the state to pay her one shilling.
“The petitioner was not subjected to due process, nor was she given reasons for the removal from office under the hand of the President. She was ingeniously notified that her tenure had ended because a replacement had been appointed,” Justice Radido said.
The judge further outlined that civil servants have a legitimate expectation that being public officers, due process as envisaged under Article 236 of the Constitution would be observed in the process of their removal from office.
But Radido said that because Ms Omollo is currently facing graft charges over unexplained wealth, the amount awarded (one shilling) was a fair compensation for the violation of her rights.
Ms Omollo has challenged the decision of the High Court which found that the more than Sh33 million she held in various accounts. The court established that the they were proceeds of crime.
She was charged over the Sh9 billion NYS corruption scandal in 2018 when it was also found out that she was married two different men.
Lilian had married Omollo, whose name she retained even after dumping him for one Dick Oruko Oneko, son of Shujaa Ramogi Achieng’ Oneko.
She remained a controversial figure around power circles to working as a top government official where she was wrongfully dismissed and given one shilling in compensations.
The kind of trivial compensation the court awarded the Ex-PS is referred to as nominal awards.
They are awarded in cases where judges find that litigants have succeeded but have not suffered any loss. They’re common in places like Britain where where judges can award litigants as little as a penny.
