The employment and Labour court on Friday nullified the UASU Kenyatta University Elections held early this year.
In the case four KU lecturers moved to court challenging the elections arguing that they were a sham.
Franklin Kinoti, Chrispus Easier, Antony Wasena and Moses Opiyo had challenged the UASU KU chapter elections.
Employment and Labour Court Judge James Rika in his judgment nullified the elections and ordered for fresh elections to be held two months.
“It is declared that the UASU KU Chapter Executive and Secretary violated the petitioners fundamental right and freedoms under the constitution of Kenya and labour relations Act by excluding them from the voter register,” the judge held.
Justice Rika also ruled that no registration shall be effected by the Registrar of Trade Unions with regard to the results of March 25 2021 elections.
“The elections results of March 25 are nullified and UASU KU chapter shall update the chapters voter registrar and advised by the registrar,” the court ruled.
Justice Rika directed that upon updating the voters registrar, inspection of the register by members and with the concurrence of UASU Chairman KU chapter and Registrar of Trade Unions , the Kenyatta university UASU chapter shall hold fresh elections within 60 days of this judgment.
The court said it was satisfied that the petitioners specified rights and freedoms under the constitution and the labour relations Act were violated as they were denied the basic right of participating in their chapter’s elections.
“The petitioner’s rights and freedoms under section 4 of the Labour relations Act and article 36 and 41 of the constitution in particular were ravaged,” the court ruled.
He faulted the Registrar of Trade Unions for interfering in the internal affairs of the trade unions.
“The role of the registrar is to register trade unions and regulate them in accordance with the law not to conduct trade unions internal processes,” he said.
Justice Rika further said that the registrar is a public officer whose role is to registrar and regulate Trade Union this role does not include the running of Trade Union internal affairs.
The court said that Trade Unions are voluntary organization entitled to self-government and courts would not interfere with their internal decisions where democratic culture is ingrained
“It would not have been necessary for the OASU to keep inviting the registrar in to assist in the electoral process had the Union embraced internal democracy and demonstrated capacity to run a transparent fair and accountable process,” he ruled.
Through lawyer Danstan Omari, the lecturers had argued that the Uasu secretary has unjustifiably excluded them and 145 other lecturers from the voter register.
They argued that all the other lecturers are keen on participating in the union elections slated for tomorrow. BY THE STAR