A court has ordered Standard Media Group to make the first instalment of the remaining part of KShs 38,342, 857 it owes its former Group CEO Orlando Lyomu by May 5th.
- •This is after Kenya’s oldest media house failed to honour the terms of the consent order, specifically the payment of KSh 750, 000 monthly instalments, it initially entered into with its former senior most employee.
- •An October 2024 ruling awarded Lyomu KShs 38,342,857, which constituted salary arrears, six (6) months’ salary in lieu of notice, unpaid leave and bonus for the month of March 2023.
- •Lyomu, who also served as the media house’s Group Finance Director and COO, was confirmed as Standard Group CEO in May 2018 after serving as acting CEO for nine months.
By February this year, Standard had paid Orlando KSh 4.5 million of the total KSh 38 million.
“In Orlando’s view, the obligation to pay the entire decretal amount crystallised upon the signing and filing of the consent in Court on 25th July, 2024 and that the interim instalments, which have the effective date of 1st August, 2024 clearly stipulated therein, were only to last until 1st November, 2024,” court papers say.
“According to Orlando, reckoning time from the relevant date of 1st August, 2024, as envisaged in the consent, to February 2025 would give KShs 5,250,000/=, as opposed to KShs 4,507,655/= that has been paid by Standard, leaving a deficit of KShs. 742,345, as at 3rd March, 2025.”
Orlando says his salary arrears and accrued leave days comprised in the Judgment amount, have been withheld by the media house for over a year, leaving him with no other means to support his family.
“Fundamentally, these are claims arising from the Claimant’s contract of employment and the employment act as of right. Accordingly, it is only fair and just that the said payments should not be left outstanding for an unreasonably long period,” noted Judge Stella Ruto of the Employment and Labour Relations Court.
Lyomu left the listed media company at the height of financial problems linked to the digital disruption that has shaken the fortunes of traditional media business models. In June, Standard Group laid off about 300 employees in the latest round of layoffs as part of restructuring efforts.
At the time, the company said it was “adopting a leaner, more efficient structure.” It also hired a new CEO, Marion Gathoga-Mwangi, and announced plans to reduce its burn rate by reducing operations in the print department.
The company’s shareholders also approved KSh 1.5 billion rights issue to strengthen its balance sheet.
