Meet Catherine Ochako, the audacious Del Monte Kenya staffer who took “self-improvement” to a whole new level—by giving herself a salary raise.
Fired for orchestrating one of the boldest payroll heists in corporate history, she bumped up her own paycheck from Ksh 91,105 to a hefty Ksh 200,000.
While on sick leave, Ms. Ochako decided her bank account deserved a little TLC. She initially hiked her salary to Ksh 250,000, had a change of heart (or calculator), dialed it down to Ksh 170,000, then finally settled on Ksh 200,000—after what must have been an intense round of negotiations… with herself.
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To complete her financial glow-up, she also upgraded her lifestyle perks. Her housing allowance jumped from Ksh 19,000 to Ksh 35,000, and she traded in her modest Ksh 7,500 transport stipend for a sleek Ksh 28,000 vehicle allowance.
But like all great heists, this one had an expiration date. A routine payroll audit uncovered the scheme, and Del Monte promptly showed her the exit in December 2020.
Not one to take a setback lightly, Ochako hit back with a lawsuit, demanding Ksh 2 million and claiming the unauthorized adjustments were just part of her “regular payroll checks.”
Yesterday, Justice Byram Ongaya crushed her corporate rags-to-riches fantasy, ruling that her misconduct was “clearly established.” And just like that, the dream of overnight wealth—courtesy of a few creative Excel edits—came to a spectacular dead end.
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