NAIROBI: One month after the High Court in Nakuru convicted Teachers Service Commission (TSC) Secretary Gabriel Lengoiboni to six months in prison for contempt of court, he is still going about his duties freely.
Mr Lengoiboni, who should be in Kamiti Maximum Prison serving six months imprisonment for contempt of court was in Turkana attending to official duties last week from from Friday to Sunday, where he held a series of meetings with county education secretariat.
This is despite the fact that Nakuru High Court judge Janet Mulwa has ordered Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinett to arrest and escort him to prison.
The TSC boss failed to release Sh16.7b for over 52,000 retired teachers who had successfully sued the commission for not remitting their pension despite a court ruling last year that TSC pays them.
The retired teachers of 1997 group sued TSC in 2006, claiming unpaid lump sum salary increment and accrued pension from July 1997. The former teachers won the case before Nakuru High Court judge David Maraga based on the 1997 TSC and Kenya National Union of Teachers Collective Bargaining Agreement. TSC appealed the judgement but the Court of Appeal ordered it to pay the teachers Sh16.7 billion in unpaid pension as of November 2010.
But last week, the TSC boss’ in-tray was full. Apart from meeting the county education secretariat, Lengoiboni held meetings with school principals and members of the county assembly in Lodwar and its outskirts.
The TSC boss who flew to Turkana on board fly 540 on Friday afternoon addressed a meeting at St. Kevins Secondary School in Turkana Central, a kilometre away from Lodwar town.
Lengoiboni, who was booked in at Ceamo Hotel in Lodwar, returned to Nairobi on Sunday with the same airline.
In February 20, Lady Justice Janet Mulwa ordered the then Acting Inspector General Samwel Arachi to arrest Lengoiboni and have him serve a six-month jail term at Kamiti Maximum Prison for disobeying a court order by not paying the retired teachers.
ARREST ORDER
But after police failed to arrest him, the retirees went back to court where Arachi was summoned to appear in person and explain why he had not effected the court order.
When Arachi appeared before the court on March 12, he told Justice Munyao that police were unable to arrest the TSC boss because he was out of the country. He promised that his officers would arrest Lengoiboni as soon as he returns.
Arachi explained to the court that he had informed the Immigration Department on the pending arrest order, saying Lengoiboni would be immediately arrested upon return from an official visit in Morocco on March 11.
He confirmed to court that the Immigration officials informed him that they were on high alert so as to inform his officers of Lengoiboni’s arrival, to have him arrested and taken to prison as directed by court.
But ironically during his Turkana tour, Lengoiboni who moved freely did not look like a man on the run and the police who were supposed to arrest him were providing him with security.
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Speaking at the secondary school, Lengoiboni said his commission had a 90,000 teachers shortage.
He explained that the shortage was a national problem and not only regional but promised to ensure there is equitable distribution of teachers.
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