Cellulant helps businesses move money through mobile money, cards and banks across Africa. Now, a Nairobi court has ordered it to pay a former manager KSh15.9 million.
A former senior executive at Cellulant Kenya Ltd has been awarded KSh15.9 million after a court ruled that his redundancy was both unfair and unlawful.
Justice Christine Baari found major gaps in Cellulant’s justification and procedure surrounding Alex Kimani Nyenjeri’s termination.
The Employment and Labour Relations Court delivered the judgement in Nairobi on September 24, 2026.
Nyenjeri joined Cellulant on September 1, 2016, rising from Product Manager to Senior Product Leader.
He eventually became responsible for the company’s Checkout Product, earning KSh870,000 monthly before his departure.
His employment ended on January 12, 2024, after Cellulant embarked on an organisational restructuring exercise.
The company said restructuring consolidated product functions and eliminated overlapping leadership positions.
But Nyenjeri argued that his job had not genuinely disappeared because Checkout continued operating after his departure.
Another employee subsequently handled functions associated with his former position, strengthening his challenge against the redundancy.
The Restructuring
The dispute began publicly during a companywide town hall meeting held on December 11, 2023.
Employees were told that restructuring was underway and could result in redundancies across the organisation.
Nyenjeri received his termination letter about one month later, dated January 12, 2024.
Cellulant insisted the exercise was genuine and intended to improve efficiency rather than address financial distress.
Its Chief Product and Technology Officer, Michael Muriuki, testified that product functions were being consolidated.
He maintained that redundancy did not require insolvency because employers retain managerial powers to reorganise operations.
The judge agreed with that general principle but said managerial discretion remained subject to employment law.
The crucial question was whether Nyenjeri’s specific position had genuinely become superfluous through restructuring.
Checkout continued operating, while another employee handled and sold the product after Nyenjeri’s departure.
That fact did not automatically defeat the redundancy but required Cellulant to explain what happened.
The judge said Cellulant should have shown the position was “abolished or materially consolidated” during restructuring.
Missing Evidence
The court found Cellulant’s evidence particularly weak concerning the statutory redundancy process.
Muriuki told the court that the Labour Office had received the required redundancy notification.
However, Cellulant produced neither the notification nor an acknowledgement proving its receipt.
The judge therefore held that simply asserting compliance was insufficient without documentary evidence establishing transmission or receipt.
The December town-hall meeting also failed to satisfy the statutory notice requirement.
According to the judge, employees needed specific information about the proposed redundancy before their employment could be terminated.
That included the reasons, extent, affected position and proposed effective date of termination.
Kenyan courts have repeatedly treated those requirements as substantive safeguards rather than administrative formalities.
The Court of Appeal has similarly emphasised meaningful consultation and objective selection criteria during redundancy exercises.
Why Nyenjeri?
The selection process created another difficulty because another employee continued performing similar functions.
Section 40 requires consideration of seniority, skill, ability and reliability when selecting employees for redundancy.
The court found no comparative assessment, selection matrix, seniority analysis or skills assessment in Cellulant’s evidence.
The judge consequently questioned why Nyenjeri was selected when another employee remained within the organisation.
That gap became critical because redundancy cannot simply disguise the replacement of one employee with another.
The court ultimately found Cellulant had failed to establish both substantive justification and procedural compliance.
The KSh15.9m Award
Cellulant also relied heavily on a separation agreement Nyenjeri signed on January 14, 2024.
The company argued that his acceptance of terminal benefits prevented him from challenging the termination.
The judge rejected that argument, noting the termination had already occurred before the agreement was signed.
Payment was also conditional upon signing the separation agreement, weakening its ability to extinguish statutory protections.
The court awarded Nyenjeri five months’ salary, amounting to KSh4.35 million, for unfair termination.
It rejected his additional claim for KSh15.486 million covering his expected remaining employment period.
The bigger award came from an unexpected employment benefit: unpaid house allowance.
Cellulant argued that Nyenjeri’s KSh870,000 gross salary already incorporated housing.
The court disagreed because his employment contract described the remuneration as “basic salary”.
Cellulant had therefore failed to prove that the salary expressly incorporated a housing component.
Justice Baari consequently awarded KSh11.5362 million in unpaid house allowance.
Nyenjeri’s claim for 98.62 unvested ESOP shares, however, failed because accelerated vesting was not established.
The court also rejected separate constitutional damages, finding no evidence of discrimination, malice, victimisation or humiliation.
Cellulant must now pay KSh15,886,200, plus interest from judgement and the costs of the suit.
The company must also issue Nyenjeri with a certificate of service within fourteen days.
The ruling leaves a clear message for employers undertaking restructuring across Kenya’s increasingly competitive corporate workplace.
Companies can reorganise their businesses, but they must still prove why particular jobs disappear.
They must also document the process, demonstrate fair selection and give affected employees meaningful statutory notice.
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