National Gender and Equality Commission's staff fight dismissal

The National Gender and Equality Commission (NGEC) is one of the three human rights commissions established as State institutions.

The other two are the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) and the Commission on Administration of Justice (CAJ).

The NGEC's mandate is to promote gender equality and fight discrimination.

It is chaired by Ms Winfred Lichuma and its other commissioners include Simon Ndubai (vice chair), Gumato Ukur Yatani and Dr Florence Nyokabi Wachira.

The commission is currently embroiled in a court battle with five of its employees over alleged wrongful dismissal for mishandling of a tender for provision of staff medical cover as as workman injury benefits insurance and group life insurance.

The four employees are Chief Executive Officer Rose Odhiambo, Deputy Commission Secretary Finance and Administration Juliana Mutisya, Programme Officer Catherine Njeru and Finance Manager Emilly Ongaga.

The tender was advertised on May 9, 2014 and opened on May 23.

On June 6, 2014, the evaluation committee examined the tenders and recommended that Britam, Resolution Health and AAR be considered for the award.

On June 23, the Tender Committee met, deliberated and recommended Britam for the award.

According to Ms Mutisya, the minutes were then sent to her three days later as she had not attended the meeting.

Lowest bidder

She noted that Britam was not the lowest bidder, contrary to what the Evaluation and the Tender committees had stated.

The lowest bidder was Resolution Health.

"Britam was supposed to have been dropped at level four of the tender process because it had not complied with requirements," she says in an affidavit filed at the Industrial Court in Nairobi.

Ms Mutisya says she raised the issue with the procurement officer and the officers took up the matter with the CEO.

The error was then corrected and Resolution Health was selected to offer the insurance covers.

On July 1, the commissioners held a meeting to discuss the tender and resolved that a fresh evaluation be conducted with an expert present.

On July 7, 2014, the Insurance Regulatory Authority, who were the experts present, said the tender process was flawed and should be cancelled as none of the final bidders were eligible for the tender to start with.

The report was discussed by the Tender Committee on July 8 and the tender was re-advertised on July 11.

On July 15, the administrators were summoned by the commissioners to explain the flaw in the tender process.

Ten days later, they were served with letters asking them to explain why they should not be disciplined in connection with their respective roles in the cancelled tender.

On September 25, after submitting their individual explanations, they were summoned to another meeting scheduled for October 2, 2014.

"I appeared before the commission on October 6 and was barely given an opportunity to give my account of what happened," Ms Mutisya claims.

The others appeared before the commissioners on October 2.

On October 7, all the officers were served with letters terminating their employment. They were all accused of misconduct by allegedly altering the tender records.

Ms Mutisya, Ms Njeru and Ms Ongaga had all been hired for a period of five years.

For the three officers, the commission said their explanations were wanting and unacceptable and were at variance with the evidence in possession of the Ngec.

The administrators filed their cases at the Industrial Court claiming unlawful termination of their contracts.

The CEO filed her own suit and the other three filed a joint case through the firm of Eric Mutua.

Alongside the suit, they filed an application restraining the commission from filling the positions or deploying other persons to take over their duties pending the hearing and determination of the application and the main suit.

Further, they asked for orders directing the commission to reinstate them to their respective positions pending the hearing of the suit.

The case went before Justice Nzioki wa Makau.

Reinstate them

A similar application was made by the CEO, Ms Odhiambo, in her suit heard separately by the same judge.

They argued that if the positions were filled, their suit would be overtaken by events.

The judge certified the applications as urgent and also ordered the commission to reinstate the four officers to their positions pending the hearing and determination of the application.

Justice Nzioka also ordered that the suit papers in the case filed by Ms Mutisya and colleagues be served on the commission and the case be heard in the presence of the parties on October 29.

The judge also ordered the commission to deposit Sh23 million as the claim made by the CEO under her contract pending the hearing and determination of the suits.