IEBC official defends Sh1.4bn claim against Telkom

A senior Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) official has defended a Sh1.4 billion claim for legal fees that his law firm slapped Telkom Kenya with, arguing that the parastatal had agreed to pay the amount.

Thomas Letangule, the IEBC commissioner who represented Telkom in several cases between 1995 and 2007, made the claim in a suit he has filed seeking to stop the Law Society of Kenya’s (LSK) disciplinary tribunal from hearing a complaint Telkom filed against his firm over the Sh1.4 billion legal fees bill.

He reckons that Telkom filed the LSK Disciplinary Tribunal complaint in a bid to evade the Sh1.4 billion it was ordered to pay as legal fees to Letangule and Company Advocates after he represented the parastatal’s former clients in an unlawful dismissal suit.

Following the parastatal’s decision to sever ties with Mr Letangule’s firm in 2007, over 700 of its retrenched employees hired him to represent them in a suit in which they claimed to have been dismissed unfairly.

Mr Letangule’s firm, now representing former Telkom workers against his former bosses, secured a Court of Appeal win in which his new clients were to receive Sh3.2 billion.

The court also ordered that Telkom meet the legal fees of its retrenched workers. Mr Letangule says the fee stands at Sh1.4 billion.

He further claims that his former client filed the LSK complaint in a bid to get even after he won the retrenched workers’ suit against Telkom.

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

After the Court of Appeal ruling, Letangule and Company Advocates and Telkom opened a joint account in which the parastatal deposited Sh250 million intended to be the first tranche of payment to its former workers.

The balance is yet to be entirely settled as Telkom filed the complaint against Mr Letangule and three other advocates working in the firm during the court battles. They are Charles Koech, Hillary Sigei and Songole Brillian.

READ: Former Telkom staff to get Sh1.2bn retirement package

While Letangule and Company Advocates and Telkom agreed to refer the issues raised in the complaint to an arbitrator, LSK went ahead to set a hearing date for the matter on November 17, last year.

The four advocates accused of malpractice, however, did not attend the LSK hearing, and the tribunal declined to adjourn the matter despite a request from their representatives. The tribunal recorded a not guilty plea for the advocates and pushed the matter to January 19.

Mr Letangule now wants the hearing stopped, as he holds that the issues complained of are before an arbitrator. He argues that LSK also ignored a response he and the other advocates had filed regarding the complaint raised by Telkom.

“The decision by LSK to set the matter down for plea and hearing is high-handed and goes against the principles of natural justice. LSK made a determination before having the benefit of perusing our response,” he added.

Mr Letangule also argues that most of the matters complained of regard the Sh1.4 billion, which he says shall be settled by the court’s taxation master. He holds that the disputed issues regarding the sum should be left to the taxation master for determination.

He claims that he has on several occasions tried to settle the dispute with Telkom amicably, but that the latter has often frustrated the move in its bid to evade paying the Sh1.4 billion.

The IEBC commissioner holds that his firm, Telkom and the retrenched employees last year struck a deal to settle the amounts ordered by the Court of Appeal, but that the parastatal has violated the terms of agreement reached in the deed of settlement dated August 8, 2014.

“The aforesaid complaint is just but a means of intimidating us to drop the quest for justice for our clients and to have our legal fees paid. It is also a means to tarnish the firm’s name for successfully suing against Telkom,” added Mr Letangule.

Telkom’s retrenched workers however agreed to take home Sh1.2 billion, less than half of the Sh3.2 billion they were awarded by the court after negotiations with their former employers.

The money is to be paid in three tranches of Sh460 million each, with the affected retirees getting between Sh900,000 and Sh3.5 million depending on the posts they held at the time of retrenchment.

Telkom had been stopped from disposing of some of its assets in April last year after the retrenched workers moved to court over fears that all known assets would be sold before they were awarded their severance pay.