LSK asks court to throw out lawyer’s Sh1.4b Telkom claim

The Law Society of Kenya has asked the High Court to throw out a suit filed by IEBC commissioner Thomas Letangule seeking to stop a disciplinary hearing between him and Telkom Kenya in a dispute over legal fees.

The LSK says Mr Letangule and three of his associates, who sent a Sh1.4 billion legal fee note to Telkom Kenya, dragged their feet in reaching out to the telecommunications firm, which had intended to reach a negotiated settlement on the dispute.

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) official has accused the advocates’ body of rushing to prosecute him and his three partners.

Telkom filed the complaint against Mr Letangule with the LSK in 2013 after he represented the telecommunications firm’s retrenched employees in a Court of Appeal case where they were awarded Sh3.2 billion for wrongful dismissal.

The IEBC commissioner was Telkom’s legal officer between 1995 and 2007, prior to representing the sacked workers. He filed the suit alongside Charles Koech, Hillary Sigei and Songole Brillian.

He holds that his former employer filed the complaint with LSK in a bid to evade the Sh1.4 billion bill it was ordered to pay Letangule & Company Advocates.

Telkom paid Mr Letangule Sh250 million as the first instalment, but declined to settle the balance and instead filed the complaint against his law firm. Mr Letangule then filed a High Court suit to stop LSK from hearing Telkom’s complaint.

“The applicants have had knowledge of this matter since October 2013 so they cannot claim that LSK is conducting the disciplinary case in a rush and maliciously when they have had more than a year to try and settle the matter amicably with Telkom,” said LSK chief executive Apollo Mboya.

READ: IEBC official defends Sh1.4bn claim against Telkom

But Mr Letangule claims that the dispute with Telkom was referred to arbitration and that LSK has jumped the gun in commencing the disciplinary hearing.

“The timing of the complaint is suspect as most of the matters date back to 2007 and 2008. It is only after the judgments against Telkom and the failure of its appeal that it purported to file the appeal,” he said.

LSK now says that the IEBC commissioner indicated in January last year that he would reach out to his former employer with the aim of negotiating an amicable settlement, but has since never mentioned any progress in the move.

Telkom, Mr Mboya adds, has piled pressure on the tribunal to hear and determine the matter as it is not interested in negotiating with Mr Letangule.

“It is against the rules of natural justice for the LSK to subject parties to the disciplinary proceedings into mediation when the complainant has indicated that it is not willing to engage in the proposed mediation. The application is an abuse of the court process,” added Mr Mboya.