Big win for 600 ex-Stanchart staff in Sh30b payout battle with bank
Courts
By
Nancy Gitonga
| Sep 06, 2025
Standard Chartered Bank Kenya’s final attempt to block a Sh30 billion pension payout to its former employees has collapsed after the Supreme Court struck out the its appeal, citing lack of jurisdiction.
In a ruling delivered on September 5, 2025, the five-judge bench comprising Deputy Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu and Justices Mohamed Ibrahim, Smokin Wanjala, Njoki Ndung’u, and Isaac Lenaola, unanimously dismissed the appeal by Standard Chartered Bank and trustees of its two pension schemes after finding that the matter did not raise issues of constitutional interpretation to warrant the Apex court’s involvement under Article 163(4)(a) of the Constitution.
“The mere allegation of constitutional violations cannot bring the appeal within the ambit of this Court’s jurisdiction under Article 163(4)(a),” the five-judge bench ruled.
“Even though it was indicated that the judicial review application was also brought pursuant to Articles 25, 47, 50, 165(6)(7) and 169(2), it neither involved the interpretation or application of these constitutional provisions, nor did the superior courts below interpret or apply the Constitution or take a constitutional trajectory.”
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The decision clears the way for 629 retired employees, some of whom exited the bank way back in 1994, to finally receive recalculated pension benefits.
At the heart of the case was a pension dispute between Standard Chartered Bank Kenya, through its pension fund trustees, and over 600 pensioners, represented by Abdalla Osman and others, regarding the administration and distribution of retirement benefits.
The case traces back to grievances raised by retirees who accused the bank and its pension trustees of using outdated salary scales and ignoring applicable allowances when calculating their benefits.
They also claimed that cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) and housing allowances were wrongly excluded.
The dispute was initially adjudicated by the Retirement Benefits Appeals Tribunal (RBAT) in Appeal No. 8 of 2021, which ruled in favour of the pensioners, finding that the bank and its trustees had failed to comply with the Retirement Benefits Act, and ordered a recalculation of pension payouts, including COLA and other allowances.
The Tribunal found the pension trustees had applied obsolete salary scales when calculating benefits, thereby significantly reducing the pension entitlements of the retirees.
Additionally, the Tribunal held that pension increments were unlawfully withheld, denying retirees their rightful annual adjustments.
It also emerged that a Sh1.1 billion surplus in the pension fund had been misused, contrary to existing regulations and directives.
Further, some retirees who had exited the bank under the Voluntary Early Retirement Scheme were improperly excluded from pension payouts, despite being legally entitled to receive them.
Standard Chartered, alongside 11 pension scheme trustees, challenged the Tribunal’s decision in the High Court, arguing that the Tribunal had exceeded its jurisdiction.
The High Court rejected the bank’s challenge.
In March, the Court of Appeal upheld that ruling, concluding that there was no evidence the bank had been treated unfairly.
“The trustees must administer pension funds in the best interest of the members and in compliance with the governing statutes,” the appellate court had ruled.
Not satisfied, the bank escalated the matter to the Supreme Court, seeking to stay the Tribunal’s decision and strike down the appellate ruling.