Railways boss in trouble over summons

Kenya Railways boss Atanas Maina. The High Court wants him to explain why he should not be committed to civil jail for ignoring summons. (PHOTO: COURTESY)

The High Court wants Kenya Railways boss Atanas Maina to explain why he should not be committed to civil jail for ignoring summons.

Kisumu High Court Judge David Majanja was irked that Mr Maina had failed to respond to summons by the court to explain why KR was unable to pay a client a Sh4.6 million court award.

"The court cannot watch flagrant disobedience of its orders and keep mum. Under section 1A and B of the Civil Procedure Act this court is duty bound to ensure substantive justice is found," Justice Majanja said.

The late Hesbon Osorrey Odongo Jura won an award for breach of contract after he was retrenched, but KR overlooked the court's verdict. Mr Odongo pursued the payment for 10 years in vain until he died in December, 2013.

But his widow Margaret Ajwang Jura picked up the case and has now been awarded Sh15,735,682 with accrued interests against the initial award of Sh4,620,777.

Odongo filed a suit against KR after being retrenched and obtained a decree for the sum of Sh879,652. The decree was not settled causing him to file another application.

Majanja has given Maina 14 days to explain the delay to pay the court award failure to which he will be jailed.

The court heard that Odongo was an employee of the defunct KR Kisumu. The court granted orders to commit the respondent for contempt of proceedings after it issued the first award in April 2014.

In the judgement, the court says Maina's property should be attached to satisfy the order of the court and the cost of application should be provided for.

The widow argued that it was wrong to use legal instruments to frustrate people. She said it was saddening that her late husband was buried even before he enjoyed the fruits of his hard fight.