Kenya: High Court Upholds Pension Tribunal Rules, Orders Fresh Review of Sh709mn Costs

Nairobi — The High Court has upheld the validity of rules governing costs awarded by the Retirement Benefits Appeals Tribunal, but ordered a fresh assessment of a Sh709.19 million costs award against Standard Chartered Bank Kenya.

Kenya Economic ReportsJustice Gregory Mutai dismissed the bank's challenge to the Retirement Benefits (Tribunal) Rules, 2000 and the costs schedule used by the Tribunal, ruling that Standard Chartered had failed to prove that the rules were unconstitutional or unlawfully made.

The dispute arose from a long-running pension case involving 629 former Standard Chartered employees and other interested parties over pension underpayments and a surplus refund.

The Retirement Benefits Appeals Tribunal had awarded Sh709.19 million in party-and-party costs.

Standard Chartered challenged the validity of the rules, arguing that Section 52 of the Retirement Benefits Act gave the Chief Justice exclusive authority to make them, yet Legal Notice No. 121 of 2000 bore the signature of then Finance Minister Chrisanthus Okemo.

The bank argued that the minister had no power to exercise the Chief Justice's rule-making authority, making the rules and costs schedule invalid.

The High Court rejected the argument, saying the bank had not provided evidence that the rules were actually made by the minister rather than by, or under the authority of, the Chief Justice.

"I am not persuaded, on the material before the court, that a signature appearing on a Legal Notice necessarily identifies the person who substantively formulated or approved its content," Justice Mutai said.

The judge also noted that the rules had been in operation for about 25 years and had been relied upon in more than 100 Tribunal decisions, placing a substantial evidentiary burden on anyone seeking to invalidate them.

The court further rejected Standard Chartered's argument that the Tribunal's costs schedule conflicted with Section 49(4) of the Retirement Benefits Act.

Justice Mutai held that the provision allows the Tribunal to award costs either according to a prescribed High Court scale or as a specific amount, while Section 52 separately gives the Chief Justice power to prescribe the scale of costs for appeals.

However, the court found that Standard Chartered's constitutional rights had been breached in the process used to arrive at the Sh709.19 million costs award.

It therefore set aside the costs component of the Tribunal's June 18, 2025 decree and ordered the Tribunal to reassess the amount.

The fresh assessment must give Standard Chartered an opportunity to challenge the calculation and the amount claimed.

The High Court clarified that its decision does not affect the Tribunal's underlying awards relating to pension underpayments and the surplus refund.

The ruling therefore keeps the retirement benefits rules in force while requiring the Tribunal to reconsider the disputed Sh709.19 million costs award through a fair process.

Read the original article on Capital FM.