At Knut Nakuru branch, another power struggle

The leaders of teachers' union Knut, Nakuru branch, are locked in a battle over term of office of their executive secretary.

For the last one year, the Kenya National Union of Teachers officials have been battling out over Mr Mungai Muhia’s stay in office despite attaining his retirement age of 60 years.

While the union wants Mr Muhia, who was elected on a five-year term in 2016, to call it a day, the embattled secretary has insisted on competing his term.

Trouble began on June 29, 2018 when Knut issued Mr Muhia with a letter requiring him to proceed on terminal leave pending his retirement.

This followed a circular from the Knut secretary-general addressed to all branch executive secretaries requiring them to have all union officials sent on mandatory six-month terminal leave before their retirement date.

TENURE TERMS


The communication, however, appeared too costly for the union branch office as it attracted a legal battle from the affected individuals, a fight that threatened to cripple the operations of the office.

Mr Muhia moved to court to challenge the letter on grounds that his term had not expired.

In his suit, he argued that the letter, which required him to hand over office to Nakuru branch assistant secretary Paul Muiru, had no basis as his employment was for five years.

He further noted that his predecessor had left the office at the age of 61 years after the expiry of his term.

STATUS QUO

He obtained court orders suspending the enforcement of the contents of the letter, pending hearing and determination of the case.

Justice Monica Mbaru in her ruling on July 11, 2018 put the letter on hold and directed that the status quo be maintained.

Further orders by the judge evoked complaints from the union branch officials who sought to have the judge recuse herself from the matter.

They successfully appealed to have the matter transferred to the Employment and Labour Relations Court in Nyeri.

However, Mr Muhia has made further applications in court complaining that the earlier interim orders by the court were being disobeyed by the branch executive committee members (BEC).

COMPLAINTS

The union officials, led by the chairperson Joseph Bii, on the other hand accused Mr Muhia of undermining the Knut constitution.

They complained that Mr Muhia was taking advantage of the court orders to misuse the union resources for his own personal gain.

The numerous complaints culminated in the suspension of Mr Muhia on grounds of professional misconduct.

In a letter dated August 19 and signed by the branch chairman, Mr Muhia was accused of dishonesty, failure to obey the executive committee decisions as well as abuse of office.

“That on various occasions, you have assigned office staff to attend to your personal errands contrary to their terms of employment. This has continued even after the BEC and steering committee gave you instructions against the same...” reads the suspension letter.

Mr Muhia, again moved back to court to challenge the suspension.

RULING

He filed a case under certificate of urgency before Justice Mbaru in Nakuru accusing the officials of witch hunt.

He sought for orders restraining the BEC members from interfering with his work in any way— including summoning, suspending, investigating or terminating his employment.

On Friday, Justice Mbaru referred the matter to Nyeri court where his other matter is pending.

Speaking to Nation after the ruling, Mr Bii expressed confidence that the decision of the judges on the matter before the Nyeri court would amicably solve the stalemate.

He, however, called on all officials and members to adhere to the union's constitution to avoid such conflicts.

SUPREMACY BATTLES

“The union constitution should be respected, I urge members to explore the internal mechanism provided by it to address their problems before moving to courts,” said Mr Bii.

As the supremacy battle continue numerous court injunctions have come along putting the operations of the branch office in jeopardy.

The situation in Nakuru mirrors the trouble at Knut House, the union’s headquarters in Nairobi.

There, embattled secretary-general Wilson Sossion is fighting in court to keep his job after he was kicked out by Knut National Executive Committee.