Economy

Envoy’s Sh57m court award adds to taxpayers’ Moi-era sins burden

kosgei

Former heads of public service Richard Leakey (left) and Sally Kosgei. PHOTOS | FILE

Taxpayers are yet again set to carry a huge court settlement burden arising out of unlawful action by two top civil servants nearly a decade ago that saw a top diplomat lose his job as Kenya’s envoy in the United States.

Samson Chemai, who until October 1999 was Kenya’s representative in Washington, has won a hefty Sh57.1 million compensation for wrongful termination of his contract by the then Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary, Sally Kosgei, and Richard Leakey, who was Head of Civil Service.

Mr Chemai had moved to court claiming his sacking was not only illegal but also malicious as he was replaced in Washington by Dr Kosgei’s husband, Yusuf Nzibo.

Labour court judge Mathews Nduma Nderi’s order against the Dr Leakey and Dr Kosgei adds to the ever growing list of illegalities committed by high-ranking officials in the Moi administration that have cost taxpayers millions of shillings.

Dr Kosgei recalled Mr Chemai from his Washington posting in October 1999, when the latter had nine months remaining on his tour of duty — a move that caused immediate stop to the payment of his monthly salary and allowances.

Dr Leakey eventually terminated the diplomat’s services in March 2000 through a letter, prompting Mr Chemai to move to court.

No power to recall

Justice Nderi last week ruled that neither Dr Leakey nor Dr Kosgei had the power to recall Mr Chemai as that authority lay, and still does, with the President.

The court also found that the appointment of Mr Nzibo, then Dr Kosgei’s husband, as the new Ambassador to the United States was confirmation that Mr Chemai’s recall was tainted with malice and ill will.

He further took issue with Dr Leakey’s failure to give Mr Chemai time to adequately prepare for his return to Kenya, as his family had also moved to the United States and his children were attending school there.

“The purported termination of Mr Chemai’s presidential appointment as ambassador by Dr Leakey and Dr Kosgei was an ill-motivated conspiracy between the said respondents with the sole motive of filling the resultant vacancy in the office of Ambassador of the Republic of Kenya to the United States of America, the Untied Mexican State and the Republic of Columbia with the husband or former husband of Dr Kosgei,” Justice Nderi held.

Moi era breaches

Mr Chemai’s case joins a long list of other awards to individuals or firms owing to constitutional breaches by high-ranking bureaucrats in former President Daniel arap Moi’s era.

Earlier this year, the family of deceased businessman Afzalkhan Rahimkhan was awarded Sh9.9 billion by a Mombasa court for the grabbing of their 328.5-acre land in Diani by government officials.

Veteran politician and multiparty democracy crusader Kenneth Matiba was in August awarded Sh504 million as compensation for the torture he underwent while under unlawful detention in 1991.

Mr Matiba suffered a stroke while in detention and his vast business empire significantly deteriorated after the incident.

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Former Imenti Central MP Gitobu Imanyara was in 2013 awarded Sh15 million as compensation for torture in the 1980s while former Githunguri MP Njehu Gatabaki got Sh10 million under similar circumstances.

Several army veterans have also over the years been awarded millions of shillings as compensation for their arrest and torture during the 1982 attempted coup, bills that have all been picked by the taxpayer.

In the latest case Justice Nderi awarded Mr Chemai Sh20.1 million but ordered that the amount be paid with interest at court rates from the date the suit was filed in 2001 until payment in full.

Going by the 12 per cent court rate, taxpayers will have to pay Mr Chemai Sh57.1 million before factoring his legal bills.

Mr Chemai’s lawyers, Murgor & Murgor Advocates, told Justice Nderi that the recall and termination by Dr Leakey and Dr Kosgei were null and void, meaning  the former Ambassador to the US has to date not been dismissed.

The judge agreed with Mr Chemai’s lawyers that his expectation to receive a fresh deployment letter to a new station was legitimate, at least for the remainder of his term.

“Mr Chemai may not have had entitlement to the many benefits accorded to an ambassador, but he is entitled to a fair recall and easement upon his return to the home country. Instead, he was humiliated, harassed, remained unpaid and without income. This was degrading and an invasion of Mr Chemai’s human dignity and he suffered mental anguish, pain, loss and damage,” Justice Nderi added.

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