Controversial Neno Evangelism Pastor James Maina Nga’ng’a has been ordered to pay Ksh300,000 to a former employee of the church Christopher Kinama over unfair dismissal.
Kinama filed a petition with the Labour Court after his unceremonious sacking by Ng’ang’a in 2017.
Kinama worked as the caretaker of the church and a dispute ensued between him and Ng’ang’a over parking fees collection.
While issuing the compensation in a court ruling, Labour Court judge Maureen Onyango said Ng’ang’a failed to give a satisfactory explanation on why he fired Kinama.
Justice Onyango said that his explanation was also contradictory and that he denied Kinama to give his side of the story before firing him.
Neno Evangelism had defended itself saying that it tried to recall Kinama and even produced letter to this effect.
However, it was dated November 18, 2016 while Kinama was sacked on January 25, 2017.
This was the contradiction that the judge raised in the case.
“With utmost respect to Apostle James Ng’ang’a, the author of the said letter, I am not convinced that it was humanly possible for him to predict that such events would take place and write the letter in advance. I have carefully perused the said letter. It is dated November 18, 2016. As indicated in the pleadings, the events that led to the claimant’s termination occurred on January 25, 2017,” she remarked according to the Standard.
Kinama had worked for Neno Evangelism for 11 years before his dismissal. When he was first employed in 2007, he earned Ksh8,000, a figure that increased to Ksh15,000 at the time of his sacking.
In court, Kinama told the Judge that Ng’ang’a instructed him to oversee operations of the church’s canteen and also collect money.
However, Neno Evangelism had just employed a new parking attendant.
The dispute ensued on who between Kinama and the new parking attendant was supposed to collect parking fees.
When the pastor called him, he asked why he did not collect parking revenue and he explained that the new parking attendant was responsible for the collection.
He also explained that he had informed the church’s manager about the issue but Ng’ang’a went ahead to fire him via text message which he adduced as evidence in court.
Ng’ang’a is not new to controversy. He has been in the limelight severally for the wrong reasons.
Years back, he was involved in a high profile case after his Range Rover hit a Nissan March at Manguo are in Limuru and killed one of the occupants.
He tries to circumvent justice by taking off but was arrested and charged at the Limuru Law courts.
In 2019, he was arrested for threatening media personality Linus Kaikai.