Court upholds Safaricom firing of executive in 2019 data-leak case
Key points
- ELRC Justice B.O.M. Manani dismissed Brian Njoroge Wamatu’s unfair-dismissal claim against Safaricom.
- Wamatu, ex-Head of Regional Expansion, challenged his 2019 summary dismissal and sought damages and benefits.
- He told the court he had served over a decade and earned about Sh1.2 million a month.
- Court accepted that an internal probe into alleged unlawful data access gave Safaricom valid grounds and process.
A 2019 data-leak fallout reached a full stop in the Employment and Labour Relations Court: Justice B.O.M. Manani dismissed former Safaricom executive Brian Njoroge Wamatu’s unfair-dismissal suit, finding the telco had valid grounds and followed disciplinary process, Eastleigh Voice reported.
Wamatu, once Head of Regional Expansion, said he had worked at Safaricom for more than a decade on about Sh1.2 million a month. He sought compensation, defamation-related damages and various employment benefits after summary dismissal, arguing he was made a scapegoat amid internal fights and denied a fair hearing after a June 2019 arrest on computer-fraud and extortion allegations.
What the employer put on the record
Safaricom told the court it reported suspected criminal conduct only after an internal investigation allegedly linked Wamatu to unlawful access and sharing of confidential customer information and senior management salary data. The company said that investigation report fed the disciplinary file. The judge agreed the report supplied a legitimate basis to act and that procedure met the legal test for termination.
A dismissal upheld is not the same as a criminal conviction. Parallel criminal or civil strands, if any remain, live in other court files. For HR teams across the sector, the judgment is a reminder that messy boardroom narratives do not erase an employer’s duty — or right — to act on documented access-control breaches when process is clean.
Stakes beyond one executive
Subscriber data and payroll leaks are existential trust issues for a mobile-money market. Courts that demand paper trails before upholding dismissal push companies toward better logging; they also warn staff that “I was framed” needs evidence, not only seniority. Watch whether either side pursues appeal and whether Safaricom updates public privacy incident language in its next governance cycle.
Business desk: Business. Verified: ELRC dismissal of the claim, 2019 termination context, Sh1.2m salary evidence, internal-probe rationale accepted. Full judgment text controls the precise legal holdings.
Based on Eastleigh Voice reporting of the ELRC judgment. The written ruling controls final legal holdings; this is not a criminal verdict summary.
