Labour court temporarily hands back sacked IEBC deputy CEO Wilson Shollei his job

Former IEBC Deputy Chief Executive Wilson Kiprotich Shollei at the Milimani Law Courts during the hearing of a case in which he was charged with ?outing procurement laws. [PHOTO: FIDELIS KABUNYI/STANDARD

NAIROBI: A labour court has temporarily nullified the sacking of Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Deputy Chief Executive Officer Wilson Shollei.

The Labour Relations and Employment Court handed Mr Shollei back his job pending the determination of a criminal case against him after finding that he had been unfairly sacked.

In her ruling, Labour Court Judge Maureen Onyango directed that the status quo before his sacking be maintained.

Shollei, Edward Karisa (Director Finance), Dismas Ong'ondi (Director Information and Communication Technology (ICT), and Willy Kamanga (Procurement Manager) were sent packing over irregularities in the purchase of the voter identification devices during last year's general elections.

The officers had already been suspended after being arraigned in court over corruption allegations, but the case had not been concluded when they received the termination letters.

Justice Onyango said IEBC should wait until the corruption case which Mr Shollei, Karisa and Kamanga are facing is concluded.

SUSPENSION LIFTED

She noted that his sacking would deny him the right to have the suspension lifted if the corruption case is withdrawn or he is acquitted.

"The upshot is that the termination of the claimant's (Shollei) employment is null and void for failure to comply with provisions of the Anti-Corruption and Crimes Act and the Employment Act," Justice Onyango ruled.

The four officials had received letters on August 14 asking them to show why the commission should not terminate their employment. It went ahead to advertise their positions in the local dailies without officially terminating their services in writing.

The affected officers, according to the "show cause" letters in our possession, were accused of failures in financial management and shortcomings in procurement processes, among others.

"During your work in the commission in the performance of your duties as set out in your letter of employment, it has been found that there were serious shortcomings in your department during your assignment and specifically there were serious problems of financial mismanagement resulting to a huge unauthorised over expenditure together with lack of financial control and discipline," one of the letters reads in part.

All the affected officers received similar letters titled "Notice of Intention to Terminate Employment."

Shollei, who doubled up as the Deputy Secretary of the commission, then moved to court seeking to stop the shortlisting of candidates for the position of Deputy CEO until the matter was concluded.

Through his lawyer Edwin Sifuna, Shollei said his dismissal was unfair and unconstitutional.

WARRANT DISMISSAL

In a sworn affidavit, he said he had not been subjected to any disciplinary process during his tenure that would consequently warrant his dismissal.

"The allegations were totally unexpected and had never been raised by IEBC at any time during the course of my employment and appeared to have been inspired by an anti-corruption case against me pending in court," Shollei said.

The former deputy CEO, who was on suspension at the time of his dismissal over alleged botched procurement of voter identification devices, wanted the court to quash both the show cause and dismissal letters.

"Pending the hearing and determination of the case, we want IEBC be restrained from interviewing sourcing or employing any other persons to undertake the duties of the office held by my client," Sifuna said.

In a sworn affidavit signed by acting CEO Betty Sungura, IEBC said: "During the claimant's (Shollei) tenure he presided over gross mismanagement of public funds."