Latest News
Kenya Power Ordered to Pay Former Manager KSh2.4 Million After Years in Acting Role
Zilpa Auma Ayara spent years performing Chief Officer duties, but the court denied her promotion while awarding KSh2.4 million in unpaid allowances.
For years, Zilpa Auma Ayara performed senior duties at Kenya Power without receiving full compensation.
Her 36-year career began in 1987, when she joined the electricity distributor as a Filing Clerk.
She eventually rose through the ranks before taking charge of the National Contact Centre.
On September 29, 2026, Justice Hellen Wasilwa delivered a mixed ruling on her employment dispute.
The judge rejected her demand for substantive appointment as Chief Officer of the centre.
However, Kenya Power was ordered to pay her KSh2,388,208 in unpaid acting allowances.
The award also attracted costs and interest at court rates from the judgement date.
The ruling therefore gave Ayara substantial financial relief while rejecting her larger promotion claim.
Acting Role
The dispute began after the National Contact Centre’s Chief Officer position became vacant.
Kenya Power appointed Ayara to act in the position from April 6, 2018.
The appointment was made pending substantive recruitment to fill the vacant senior position.
Ayara subsequently performed duties associated with the higher office while retaining her substantive position.
Her salary remained substantially below the remuneration attached to the Chief Officer position.
She told the court that her substantive salary stood at about KSh205,880 monthly.
The Chief Officer position, she argued, carried monthly remuneration of approximately KSh461,079.
That disparity formed the basis of her wider claim for salary arrears and related benefits.
Ayara also argued that Kenya Power’s rules restricted acting appointments to six months.
She maintained that the company should either appoint someone substantively or end her acting arrangement.
Instead, the arrangement continued through several years and became increasingly contentious.
On August 9, 2018, Ayara wrote to Kenya Power seeking clarification about her responsibilities.
The company responded on October 2, 2020, setting out duties associated with her role.
Those exchanges later became important evidence in determining whether she remained an acting officer.
Payment Fight
Kenya Power disputed Ayara’s account and said her acting periods were not continuous.
The company said Martha Njeri Kamanu replaced her as acting officer from May 2020.
According to Kenya Power, Ayara resumed acting only from January 2023 until retirement.
The company also cited recruitment restrictions affecting appointments during part of the period.
But internal documents presented in court complicated that position and supported Ayara’s account.
Kenya Power’s human resources witness, Duncan Ndungu, acknowledged that allowance payments began much later.
He confirmed that payments started in March 2023, although they were backdated to January.
The court consequently examined whether Kenya Power could rely upon its six-month limitation.
Justice Wasilwa concluded that the company could not use its own rules that way.
The judge held that Kenya Power had allowed Ayara to continue performing higher duties.
“They cannot continue to rely on their own manual,” Justice Wasilwa ruled.
She further held that Kenya Power could not “benefit from their own mistake”.
That finding became the foundation for the financial award ultimately granted to Ayara.
The court also rejected Kenya Power’s argument that the allowance claim was time-barred.
Ayara had repeatedly raised the payment issue during her employment, according to the evidence.
The judge consequently treated the unpaid allowance as a continuing injury.
Ayara was awarded KSh1,235,280 for thirty months of unpaid acting allowance.
A further KSh1,152,928 covered another twenty-six months of unpaid allowance.
Together, the two awards amounted to KSh2,388,208 before statutory deductions.
Promotion Denied
Ayara’s biggest claim, however, was not the unpaid acting allowance but substantive appointment.
She wanted the court to recognise her as the substantive Chief Officer after years performing those duties.
Her argument relied heavily on the prolonged acting arrangement and Kenya Power’s employment policies.
She also invoked legitimate expectation arising from the company’s conduct and internal rules.
Kenya Power countered that acting service could never automatically produce substantive appointment.
The company also relied on competitive recruitment requirements governing senior appointments.
Justice Wasilwa ultimately rejected Ayara’s claim for substantive confirmation to the position.
The judge found that the claim lacked merit in light of the applicable government employment policy.
That finding effectively ended Ayara’s larger demand for Chief Officer salary arrears.
The judgement therefore drew a firm line between performing higher duties and holding higher office.
Years of acting responsibility could justify an allowance without automatically creating substantive promotion.
That distinction became the defining feature of Ayara’s partial victory in court.
Discrimination Fails
Ayara also alleged discrimination and argued that her career progression had been unfairly restricted.
She relied partly on an Auditor-General report highlighting disparities within Kenya Power.
Her case suggested that other employees had received more favourable treatment in comparable circumstances.
Kenya Power disputed that interpretation and said the report did not establish personal discrimination.
The court ultimately found that Ayara had failed to prove the discrimination allegations.
“As concerns other claims for discrimination, this has not been proved,” Justice Wasilwa ruled.
The finding consequently defeated her separate KSh5 million discrimination compensation claim.
The court also declined to grant the requested retirement certificate correction based on substantive appointment.
Ayara had entered court seeking more than KSh42 million in salary arrears and damages.
She instead emerged with KSh2.388 million, together with costs and interest from judgement.
The judgement thus rejected her biggest claims while recognising a concrete financial consequence.
For Kenya Power, the ruling carries another message about prolonged acting arrangements.
An employer cannot extend higher responsibilities indefinitely while ignoring corresponding payment obligations.
Yet prolonged service in an acting capacity does not itself guarantee substantive appointment.
For Ayara, that distinction meant losing the office while winning compensation for performing it.
PAY ATTENTION: Reach us at info@gotta.news.