Water and Irrigation secretary Eugene Wamalwa. PHOTO | SALATON NJAU
What you need to know:
Board members left for Nairobi shortly after Water CS Eugene Wamalwa arrived in Embu to issue title deeds to land owners affected by the construction of a mega dam at Mwea irrigation scheme.
They were protesting the presence of suspended GM Daniel Barasa at the function.
This came as Mr Wamalwa threatened to dissolve the board if the suspended executives are not reinstated by close of business on Friday.
Supremacy wars between Water secretary Eugene Wamalwa and the National Irrigation Board (NIB) played out in the open Thursday when directors walked out of a function to protest the presence of the agency’s suspended official.
The 13-member board members left for Nairobi shortly after Mr Wamalwa arrived in Embu to issue title deeds to land owners affected by the construction of a mega dam at Mwea irrigation scheme.
This came as Mr Wamalwa threatened to dissolve the board if the suspended executives including General Manager Daniel Barasa are not reinstated by close of business on Friday.
Mr Wamalwa asked the board on April 25 to reinstate Mr Barasa together with Mary Chomba (Deputy General Manager Finance and Strategy) and Boaz Akello (Procurement and Supplies) after they were suspended on April 21 for misconduct and financial mismanagement.
The board on Thursday morning held a brief meeting after realising that Mr Barasa was attending the function.
“There is no way we will be part of the function attended by a suspended official. We told the CS that and he said that we can leave for Nairobi if we were uncomfortable,” said NIB board chairman Sammy Letema.
Mr Wamwala’s Principal Secretary Patrick Mwangi, who earlier opposed the reinstatement of Mr Barasa, also snubbed the Mwea event and travelled back to Nairobi with the rest of the board.
Dr Letema said the board headed back to Nairobi to convene a special meeting whose agenda is to discuss the minister’s board dissolution threat and reinstatement of Mr Barasa by 5pm Friday.
“We are meeting to deliberate the CS’ directive as a board and come up with a common stand,’’ he said.
On Friday, Mr Barasa played a leading role at the Mwea event where he introduced Mr Wamalwa to NIB officials and Kirinyaga governor Peter Ndathi.
Mr Wamalwa accused the board of convening an ordinary meeting that it termed ‘‘special board meeting’’ ahead of Mr Barasa’s suspension.
Mr Wamalwa said that the board violated the rights of the suspended officials by casting blanket accusations against them without mentioning specifics of their breaches and that the decision infringed on the law of natural justice.
The fight is emerging at a moment when NIB has started planting at the multi-billion shilling Galana-Kulalu scheme, which seeks to put one million acres under irrigation to wean Kenya from rain-fed agriculture.
The Treasury has allocated NIB Sh8.6 billion for mega irrigation projects for the year starting July including Galana (Sh3.2 billion), Mwea (Sh3.2 billion) and Sh2.2 billion for other projects.
Dr Letema said that Mr Wamalwa’s move was against corporate governance principles which guarantee boards independence. He added that the board will invite the anti-corruption agency, the auditor-general and the Efficiency Monitoring Unit to probe the three executives.
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