Five employees take Portland CEO to court for contempt

NAIROBI, KENYA: Five employers have filed contempt proceedings against East African Portland Cement managing director Simon Peter Ole Nkeri after he failed to reinstate them.
The five had been reinstated by Labour and Employment Lady Judge Hellen Wasilwa but the MD has not acted on the court orders to have them back to work.
Justice Wasilwa had directed that Mr Benjamin Mwendwa Ndauiti, Ibrahim Mugo, Evans Abuga, Desmond Owiyo and Felix Vunga, be reinstated after the court found out that they were dismissed unfairly.
"The five were dismissed unfairly and for lack of adequate reasons and failure to follow due procedure before termination," Justice Wasilwa said in her ruling. The Judge had warned that any disobedience or noncompliance with the decree would result in automatic penal consequences.
But five months since the judgement, EAPCC is yet to reinstate them prompting them to file a suit in a Nairobi court seeking to have the company's MD jailed for six months for disobeying a court order.
Lawyer Edward Oonge filed a certificate of urgency on behalf of the sacked workers where he states that the MD has ignored the court order requiring the reinstatement of the five workers.
"The MD has refused to comply with the judgment and decree of this court," the lawyer said adding that the MD actions amount to disobedience of the law.
Mr Oonge says in the application that Mr Nkeri is in contempt and that his conduct is an affront to the powers vested in the court by declining to reinstate the employees.
The case has been certified urgent and the MD is required to purge the contempt in seven days and show cause why he should not be committed to civil jail.