Nasty toilet fight over soft loan now in court

A violent confrontation between a manager and his junior in the office toilet over a loan has acquired fresh significance after the matter reached the courts.

Mr Michael Aremon, the manager in charge of Strategy, Planning and Quality Assurance at the Anti-Counterfeit Agency (ACA), and Mr Geoffrey Arori, a depot clerk based in Nairobi’s Industrial Area, have since been interdicted pending disciplinary procedures.

But the “washroom war” will now be determined in the corridors of justice after the manager filed a case at the Employment and Labour Relations Court.

Court documents detail how the two had a dispute over a Sh350,000 “friendly” loan the manager supposedly borrowed last August from a colleague, Ms Domitila Ndungwa, with his junior, Mr Arori, as a guarantor.

The loan was secured by the manager’s log book, with an agreement that the vehicle would be auctioned should he fail to repay the money within a month. When Mr Aremon defaulted, the lender and Mr Arori engaged an auctioneer who towed away the car. This purportedly angered the manager.

Mr Aremon and his junior are alleged to have later argued about the loan inside the office on November 21, 2018, but this degenerated into a physical confrontation. Screams for help from the junior official — who is said to have been pinned to the wall by the manager and held by the neck — attracted colleagues to the scene.

The ACA board interdicted Mr Aremon on December 10, last year, on grounds that he had breached the code of regulations by handing over his junior to the police after the alleged assault. He was also required to explain why he used police officers to solve personal disputes in the agency’s premises.

DISMISSED

“You are alleged to have either assaulted him physically, grabbed him on (sic) the neck and pinned him to the wall before his screams attracted the attention of other staff members, whose intervention stopped the altercation,” reads a show cause letter addressed to Mr Aremon, which is part of the court filings.

The manager is to receive only half of his Sh397,339 monthly salary and he is required to report to the office after every two weeks, on Fridays, as ACA determines his fate, something he has protested to in affidavits filed in court.

Mr Aremon says his interdiction is a ploy to terminate his services and he has demanded close circuit television footage of the altercation in the male washrooms.

He claims that he was simply defending himself before “outweighing” Mr Arori, who screamed “loudly for help”.

He also blames his employer for failing to provide separate washrooms for senior and junior staff, causing the “absurd ordeal”.

“This is a pre-planned scheme to terminate my employment contract despite being a victim of an attack by a colleague in the washroom. It is thus necessary to issue conservatory orders to preserve my position pending the determination of this claim,” Mr Aremon says in the affidavit.

JURISDICTION

Mr Arori is said to have been the deal-maker in the loan from Ms Ndungwa. He received the money which he took to his manager, according to the August 5, 2018, agreement filed in court.

But in his response, Mr Aremon denies having engaged Mr Arori in the deal, insisting the loan was between him and the lender. In his assault claim captured in Kenya Police Medical Examination records (P3 form), Mr Aremon claims that Mr Arori stole his log book and a copy of his National Identity Card.

He also claims that ACA has no jurisdiction to entertain the dispute as it is criminal in nature. He accuses the Executive Director, Mr Elema Halake, of interfering with the work of the police.

The 43-year-old manager, who started working at the agency in June 2010, says in his court filings that he has clean employment records and is only being fixed to pave the way for his dismissal. He wants the interdiction declared illegal.

In a replying affidavit dated January 28, 2019, the State agency argues that the claimant is late in making his application in court and it should be dismissed. It further argues that the manager’s affidavit is “full of falsehoods, outright lies and half-truths”.

The agency accuses him of plotting to subvert an ongoing disciplinary procedure as prescribed in ACA’s human resources policies.

A verifying affidavit by ACA Deputy Director Fridah Kaberia, who is in charge of Human Resources, says the agency has powers to discipline Mr Aremon, who she claims is bound by the employer’s code of ethics.

INTIMIDATING

Ms Kaberia accuses the manager of not being candid with the court as he only made the move to avoid appearing before the board, which had planned a sitting to determine his fate after he responded to the show cause letter.

“These allegations constitute gross misconduct offences under the respondent’s Human Resources Policy and Procedures. The board's decision to interdict the applicant was informed by the need to have the matter investigated without interference or intimidation of junior staff, who may have witnessed the altercation; and the inquiry into the matter is still ongoing,” Ms Kaberia writes.

The agency’s court filings indicate that Mr Arori had also been interdicted, contrary to the claim of bias against Mr Aremon. It also terms as absurd the manager's demand for CCTV footage from the toilet, where such cameras are barred for privacy reasons.

The ruling on whether Mr Aremon should go through the ACA disciplinary process will be determined on March 4.