Fake court order ruins union official’s ouster

Secretary general of Kenya union of civil servants Tom Odege(right) and Ntional Chairman John Nzau during a delegates meeting. Union members have accused them of misappropriating the union money on 6/9/2018. [Beverlyne Musili,Standard]

A fake court order was used to silence members of the Union of Kenya Civil Servants (UKCS) who had hatched a plot to oust a top official.

It has emerged that the purported order barring delegates to discuss matters that had not been listed on the agenda read contrary to what embattled national treasurer Julius Mugo had obtained from Justice Maureen Onyango.

During the meeting at the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) in Nairobi on Wednesday last week, members had just started discussing the fate of Mugo when a man walked into the hall and handed a paper to chairman John Nzau.

Mr Nzau then read out the contents to the conference, thereby scuttling the matter.

But last Friday, one of the officials sought clarity from the Employment and Labour Relations Court in Milimani, Nairobi, over the authenticity of the document. The court records show a different ruling.

On September 4, lawyer Gilbert Nyamweya filed an application, asking the court to bar the UKCS Advisory Council from introducing issues that are not itemised in the agenda of the meeting.

Extraneous matters

“Some members of the Advisory Council have plotted to introduce, discuss and pass resolutions concerning matters which are outside the agenda. Such unprocedural introduction of extraneous matters in the agenda is contrary to the constitution of the union and the Constitution of Kenya 2010,” reads his petition.

But according to Justice Onyango’s ruling on Tuesday last week, the court declined to give directives on the matter. “I am not persuaded that the application is merited as it is speculation,” ruled the judge.

But the UKCS chairman read to members a different ruling that indicated the court had prohibited union members from discussing some national officials in the meeting.

“I received the orders when I was just seated with the delegates at the conference hall. These orders were very specific, they prohibited discussing personalities,” Nzau said.

UKCS Nairobi Central branch secretary Adam Katana said the court order was meant to intimidate the members from sealing some loopholes in the management of the union by the national officials.

“This court order caught us by surprise because we came here to look for a way forward in filling the gap that was left by the national treasurer. It was just a fake order,” said Mr Katana. He said they would sue the chairman for “lying” to members.

Mugo resumed office after he had left to vie for a political seat in the 2017 General Election.

Katana said Mugo was deleted from the payroll on February 15, 2017 when he joined politics. He said records from the National Executive Board (NEB) indicate that the treasurer had resigned.

Audit report

Other issues some officials have raised include the alleged disappearance of more than Sh50 million from the union’s account as revealed in 2017 audit report by Henry Smith & Wilson certified public accountants.

They also claim that the officials had not been remitting members’ deductions in tax of up to Sh3 million annually to the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA). The KRA has fined the union Sh100 million.

But Nzau dismissed the claims as baseless but admitted that most of the members had stagnated in one job group for years.