Kenya's Biggest Bank to Pay Bonuses After Labor Court Battle

(Bloomberg) -- KCB Group Ltd.’s Kenya Commercial Bank can pay its management their 2017 annual bonuses after a court ruled against a labor union’s efforts to block the disbursements.

The Banking, Insurance and Finance Union tried to stop bonuses being distributed to 2,279 managers on the grounds that the use of quarterly reviews was discriminatory, Nairobi-based Kenya Commercial Bank said in a statement on Thursday. Staff in Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, South Sudan were also affected by a previous court ruling stopping the bonuses, it said.

KCB Chief Executive Officer Joshua Oigara earned 147 million shillings ($1.5 million) in bonus payments last year, a base salary of 65 million shillings and other allowances and gratuities of 43 million shillings, according to the lender’s latest annual report. Chief Financial Officer Lawrence Kimathi’s annual bonus increased 130 percent to 23 million shillings, while his total annual salary grew 37 percent to 59 million shillings.

The bank’s non-executive directors’ remuneration also increased 15 percent to 400 million shillings, the report showed. A government-imposed cap on lending commercial lending rates saw a 0.1 percent drop in full-year profit as income from loans declined. The lender also spent 2 billion shillings on restructuring 709 employees.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bella Genga in Nairobi at bgenga2@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Stefania Bianchi at sbianchi10@bloomberg.net, Vernon Wessels, Robert Brand

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.