A driver who was fired by the 2NK Sacco will now have to part with Sh. 233,000 after a case he was involved in was dismissed against him with costs. The driver, John Maina Muthoni, had caught national headlines after he was fired by the 2NK Sacco.
He was fired after taking rowdy students who had boarded his vehicle to a police station in November 2021 after suspecting that they were smoking bhang in the vehicle. He had then sued the Sacco seeking for compensation over what he termed as unfair dismissal from work.
A show cause letter that the former 2NK driver shared with the public indicated that an arrest and committal to jail had been suggested to the court if he fails to pay the amount ordered.
It was not immediately clear if the driver has been working since his dismissal from the 2NK Sacco. In December of 2021, Nyeri Governor Mutahi Kahiga had announced that Nyeri County would employ him.
AT the time, the 2NK board of directors denied terminating his employment. The Sacco chairman James Kahiro had said that the driver’s name was still in the NTSA portal and that the driver’s name had not been scrapped from the Sacco’s documents.
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Kahiro had claimed that Muthoni had failed to remit Sh. 2,100 to the matatu owner and would resume work as soon as he cleared the money. He claimed that on the day the incident occurred, the fare rate from Karatina to Nairobi was Sh. 400 per passenger but Muthoni only reemitted Sh. 250 per passenger.
He further alleged that Muthoni was booked to drive to Ruai but changed and travelled to Nairobi after getting the student passengers.
“His case being one of gross misconduct, we then referred it to the board of directors’ disciplinary committee. The board determined and requested Muthoni to settle the matter of the unremitted money with the actual owner of the vehicle,” he claimed.