Kenyan lawyer Kevin Turunga Ithagi has petitioned the International Criminal Court (ICC) over the alleged withholding of pension benefits belonging to approximately 850 former East African Community (EAC) workers, seeking an examination into decades of unpaid entitlements and the suffering experienced by elderly beneficiaries.
Through his law firm, Turunga Ithagi & Associates, the Advocate of the High Court of Kenya submitted a communication to the ICC Office of the Prosecutor on November 3, 2026, under Article 15 of the Rome Statute, requesting a preliminary examination into the matter.
Ithagi represents the Chairwoman and Representative Committee of the Ex-East African Community Workers’ Alliance, Payroll 3A1, comprising surviving former employees of EAC corporations and the estates and dependants of those who have died.
The beneficiaries are Tanzanian nationals.
Nearly Four Decades Without Pension Payments
In the communication, Ithagi states that the former employees have been deprived of pension and provident fund benefits they contributed towards during their employment for almost four decades.
The funds were held and administered by the Crown Agents for Oversea Governments and Administrations in London.
Following the collapse of the EAC in 1977, the East African Community Mediation Agreement of May 14, 1984, required each partner state to pay its nationals the pensions and benefits owed to them.
During the mediation process, mediator Dr Victor Umbricht reportedly proposed that the funds should follow the pensioners, observing that “because after all the pension funds belong to the pensioners themselves, not their governments”.
However, on October 18, 1986, Tanzania’s Minister for Finance instructed that the country’s share be transferred to an account belonging to the Bank of Tanzania at the Bank of England.
According to the communication, the minister stated that the money “will not be available for general use but only for priorities to be indicated by the government in due course”.
On January 20, 1987, the Crown Agents transferred the funds, then valued at £28,944,652, with Tanzania receiving £9,189,410.54.
Despite the transfer, Ithagi maintains that the intended beneficiaries have never received their pension entitlements.
Questions Over the Whereabouts of the Money
The communication identifies several institutions that have reportedly maintained that the money was transferred to the Central Bank of Tanzania, after which responsibility passed to the Tanzanian government.
These include the UK Government Legal Department, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), Crown Agents and the joint liquidators of Crown Agents Limited.
The lawyers further state that Crown Agents Limited entered compulsory liquidation on August 1, 2024. Its joint liquidators reportedly registered a consolidated proof of debt amounting to TZS 1.2 trillion, approximately £377 million, but indicated that no funds were available.
Ithagi also raises concerns over a 2005 settlement involving other former EAC employees, arguing that the Payroll 3A1 beneficiaries were excluded.
Previous challenges before Tanzanian courts and the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights were dismissed on procedural time-limit grounds without determination of the substantive claims, according to the communication.
Ithagi Seeks ICC Examination Into Alleged Crimes Against Humanity
In the submission, Ithagi asks the ICC prosecutor to examine whether the continued deprivation of pension benefits and the resulting suffering could constitute crimes against humanity under Article 7 of the Rome Statute.
The lawyers argue that the beneficiaries have grown old in poverty, with many dying without access to adequate medical care, food and shelter.
The communication describes the situation as one in which “the Victims have grown old in destitution”, adding that the deprivation of their entitlements continues.
The submission acknowledges that the original transfer of funds in 1987 predates the ICC’s temporal jurisdiction over Tanzania, which commenced on November 1, 2002.
It therefore asks the prosecutor to examine alleged conduct that continued after that date, including the continued withholding of the funds and the exclusion of beneficiaries from the 2005 settlement.
Ithagi wants the ICC to register the communication, assess the evidence and consider opening a preliminary examination. He has also requested that the prosecutor seek further information from the governments of Tanzania and the United Kingdom, the Bank of Tanzania and Crown Agents’ joint liquidators.
The submission remains a request for ICC intervention and does not mean that the court has opened an investigation or established criminal responsibility against any individual or institution.
