MP ordered to pay loan borrowed from junior staff

By Vincent Bartoo

A Member of Parliament has been given 14 days to repay a loan he allegedly borrowed from his junior staff or face legal action.

Marakwet West MP Boaz Kaino has been served with a notice by two of his former employees, demanding Sh110,000 from him.

Emmanuel Koech and Christopher Kibor, who worked for the MP at his constituency office in Nairobi, are demanding Sh55,000 each.

Through Nyairo and Company Advocates, Koech is also demanding an additional Sh30,000 being one month unpaid salary, bringing the total amount owed to Sh140,000.

“We are instructed to demand the sum, in respect of a friendly loan advanced to you on or about May 2009,” wrote their lawyers.

They added that should they not receive the Sh140,000 and a debt collection charge of Sh10,000 within 14 days, the MP should prepare to face a court battle.

“Our instructions are to file a suit against you at your own risk as to costs without further reference to you,” the lawyers said in a demand notice to the MP.

Speaking to the press earlier, the workers claimed to have given the MP the money to sort out “a personal pressing need”.

“We had not been paid for four months, so when a lump sum payment came, he approached us and asked for the loan from the four of us,” said Kibor.

Kibor claimed that when they later asked for the money from him, he relieved them of their duties and replaced them with new office bearers.

They have since written a protest letter to Clerk of the National Assembly, Mr Patrick Gichohi, asking him to help them recover the money in vain.

“We wish to request your office to assist us recover the above stated amount of money. The arrangement dates back to April 2009 when the office staff got their salary arrears and the MP requested a loan,” it reads in part.

Added the employees: “The loanee seems to default the agreement (to return the money)”.

“When he relieved us of our jobs, he asked me to stay on for one month to hand over the office to the new office bearers and said I would be paid, but I did not receive a cent,” said Koech.

They added that their efforts to get the MP have been fruitless as he neither picks their calls.

But the MP defended himself from the accusations leveled terming them a fabrication.

“I do not owe them anything. They owe me a lot of money which they misappropriated while in office and is the reason why I relieved them of their duties,” he told The Standard.

Kaino said the four had even absconded their duties and were absent from the office most of the period they served him.

“If you go to Parliament, you will find those records. They were hardly in the office but received their pay. I have been very lenient with them,” he said.