The Court of Appeal has declined to lift the warrant of arrest and committal to one month's civil jail of Bomet Governor Hillary Barchok and ten officers who have evaded police for a month.
Employment and Labour Relations Court (ERC) in Nakuru directed on June 11, that the governor, County Secretary Simon Langat and the nine other officers be committed to Nakuru GK Prisons for one month for repeatedly failing to comply with orders to reinstate 595 workers irregularly removed from the payroll.
The Court of Appeal ruling came before the Bomet Officer Commanding Bomet Police Station (OCS) appeared before the Employment and Labour Relations Court (ELRC) on Thursday, July 9, to explain why he had not executed the arrest orders against the governor and his officers.
This follows an appeal filed by Governor Barchok and County Secretary Simon Langat, whose defence counsel admitted in court that they had been in hiding to evade arrest by police in line with court directives.
Court of Appeal Judges – John Mativo, Brown Murungi Kairaria and Justice Issack Hassan – threw away the appeal by advocate Andrew Matwere as it was not properly drafted and filed.
Mr Matwere told the court that the governor, the county secretary and senior officers had not visited their offices for the past month, which had negatively impacted service delivery to the public.
“The governor and the county secretary have not been to their offices since the court ordered their commitment to a civil jail. They fear arrest, and the OCS Bomet police station has been summoned to appear before court in person to explain why the governor and his officers have not been arrested,” Mr Matwere told the court.
The county government’s defence team was berated by the court for appearing before it totally unprepared, complete with erroneous dates of the ruling by the ERC court.
“We will give you a date in October, to go back and reorganise yourself so you can properly appear before this court,” the Judges told the appellants.
A spirited attempt by the defence counsel to have the warrant of arrest and committal to civil jail lifted, to an extent of requesting the CGWU to enter into a new agreement with the county government on the matter, was rejected by the Judges who stated such orders could not be issued without bending the law and rules of the Court of Appeal.
The appellants claimed that the county had paid over Sh 26 million of the Sh 101.6 million for 127 officers whom they claimed met the criteria for reinstatement, but the county could not demonstrate how it went about the reinstatement of the 127 officers.
The County Government Workers Union legal team stated that as per the court documents and orders, the directive for reinstatement involved 595 workers and not 127 as the county claimed
The OCS Bomet was required to appear before the ELRC court on July 9, to explain the challenges faced in compliance or reasons for disobedience of court orders.
The order had required the OCS to arrest Prof Barchok, County Secretary, Simon Langat, County Public Service Board (CPSB), Chief Officer Finance and Economic Planning Milka Rono, CPSB chairman Engineer Alexander Rono, Chief Executive Officer CPSB Emily Chesang, Rtd Human Resource manager Eric Rono and five other members of the CPSB – for contempt of court.
The Judge in his June 18 ruling directed that the 11 be committed to Nakuru GK Prison for the period until they prove compliance with the orders.
However, the employees who filed the case through the Kenya County Workers Union moved back to court complaining over failure by the OCS to enforce the court orders, noting that the individuals are still walking free despite the order.
They successfully applied to court to have the OCS Bomet summoned to explain the reasons for non- compliance.
“You are hereby required (personally) to appear before this court on July 9 at 9 o’clock in the morning to inform the court of all the disobedience of all the court orders dated June 18,” ruled the judge on July 2.
The contempt ruling emanated from an application by the workers who sought the court's intervention after a judgment dated February 9, 2024, by a Kericho court found the county government to have acted in violation of the law when sacking the workers.
The workers who transitioned from the local governments had moved to court in 2022 to challenge their sacking from their position by the county public service board.
In their Court documents, the employees told the court that they were first engaged for a two-year uninterrupted contract on October 1, 2015, but continued to serve for five years with the full knowledge, consent and approval of the employer and earned full salary and allowances from the county government before they were forced out of the employment.
The Judge in his ruling had directed the county government to reinstate the affected workers, transition their terms of service from contractual to permanent and pensionable, and pay them their due accumulated salaries and allowances.
The court further barred the county from advertising, interviewing or recruiting other candidates for the positions the affected workers held.
However, the workers instituted contempt of court proceedings against the county government after it proceeded to declare vacant their positions and went ahead to advertise for recruitment into the vacant positions created.
