Worker sues Green Wells for unfair redundancy

A former employee has sued Green Wells Energies Limited at the Employment and Labour Relations Court in Kisumu, alleging the company unlawfully pushed him out through a botched redundancy and contract manoeuvres that breached the law.
In a memorandum of claim filed in 2025, James Ang’awa Okeyo is seeking KSh3,103,697 in compensation, notice pay and accrued leave, plus a certificate of service, costs and interest.Okeyo states he was hired on 3 April 2023, under a fixed-term contract set to expire on December 31, 2024, with a gross monthly salary of KSh230,000.
Despite the apparent expiry, he says he “continued rendering services from January 2025 to May 2025 without interruption,” which, in his view, “constituted an implied renewal or extension of the employment relationship by conduct.”
The dispute escalated in April–May 2025 when the claimant says he received a backdated contract “purporting to renew his employment from 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2026.”
He objected to what he calls a raft of irregularities: the document “lacked authentic signatures,” “omitted a promised salary review,” “introduced an unreasonable indemnity clause,” and “reduced the Claimant’s leave days without explanation or agreement.”
According to the filing, Okeyo formally raised the concerns by email to the Chief Executive Officer on 13 May 2025. A meeting was eventually held on 29 May 2025, but he says management “merely addressed the salary concerns, ignoring all other material issues.”
The legal battle
He contends the company’s subsequent actions amounted to “unlawful and unfair termination.”
Under “Particulars of Unfair Termination,” the claim lists several alleged procedural defects, including “failure to issue proper notice of redundancy to the Claimant and labour office,” “converting a redundancy notice into a disciplinary process without legal basis,” and “termination of employment under false pretence of contract expiry despite extended service.” The pleading also cites a “violation” of fair process principles.
The claim quantifies the relief as follows: 12 months’ compensation for unfair termination at KSh230,000 per month (KSh2,760,000), one month’s salary instead of notice (KSh230,000), and accrued leave (KSh113,697), a total of KSh3,103,697, together with a certificate of service, costs and interest. “
The Claimant has written a demand letter to the Respondent without any response,” the documents state.
Okeyo’s case also challenges the substance of the employer’s paperwork. Beyond the disputed indemnity clause and reduced leave days, he argues the contract changes were introduced “without explanation or agreement,” and that the company attempted to rely on an expired term while simultaneously floating a backdated renewal, positions he portrays as contradictory and unfair.
“Termination… under false pretence of contract expiry,” the pleading says, was used even though he kept working through May 2025.
The suit, filed through advocate Eddy Nicholas Orinda Ombudo, asks the court to declare that Okeyo “remained an employee of the Respondent by conduct from January to May 2025,” and that the termination was “unfair and unlawful.”
He further prays for “any other or further relief that the court may deem just,” underscoring that no parallel proceedings over the same subject matter are pending elsewhere.
As of the filing, the employee’s position is that Green Wells Energies Limited failed both the letter and spirit of fair termination and redundancy procedures.
The court will now determine whether the company’s notices, meetings and contract documents met legal standards, or whether, as the claimant insists, the process “ignored all other material issues” and cost him his job and income.