Irrigation secretary Eugene Wamalwa with Israeli Agriculture minister Uri Ariel during the launch of maize harvesting at the Galana Kulalu irrigation scheme last September. PHOTO | FILE
Water and Irrigation secretary Eugene Wamalwa on Monday triggered a fight with the National Irrigation Board (NIB) board after he reinstated executives suspended by the agency on Thursday against the advice of the directors.
Mr Wamalwa reinstated the managers through a letter to the NIB board chairman, Sammy Letema, on grounds that the board did not follow the law in removing the executives and that he was not consulted as Cabinet secretary overseeing the irrigation agency.
Dr Letema termed Mr Wamalwa’s directive illegal and vowed that the NIB board would not allow the suspended officials to resume office.
“As the board, we have the final word in this matter. We understand that the CS has reinstated the suspended officials but as far as we are concerned, they are still on a six month suspension to allow investigations against them,” said Dr Latema.
NIB general manager Daniel Barasa, Mary Chomba (deputy general manager finance and strategy) and Boaz Akello (procurement and supplies) were suspended on Thursday over misconduct and financial mismanagement.
In a confidential letter to the chairman, Mr Wamalwa accuses the board of convening an ordinary meeting that it termed as “special board meeting”.
Mr Wamalwa says that the board violated rights of the suspended officials by casting blanket accusation without mentioning the specifics of their breaches and that the decision infringed on law of natural justice.
“In the meantime, the said officers continue with their normal duties until further direction,” said Mr Wamalwa in the letter.
The CS has called on the board of directors to convene a special sitting within the next 14 days to investigate any allegations made against the officers and report back to him within 90 days.
This has drawn protests from NIB directors including Mr Wamwala’s PS Patrick Mwangi. “The board’s resolution is final and it can only be revoked by the same board,” said Mr Mwangi without going into details.
The fight is emerging at a moment when NIB has started the planting at the multi-billion shilling Galana-Kulalu farm — which seeks to put one million acres under irrigation to wean Kenya off rain-fed agriculture.
Dr Letema says Mr Wamalwa’s move are against corporate governance principles that guarantees board independence.
“Mr Wamalwa’s move is against the State Corporations Act and we are not going to allow his actions on an independent board,” he said.
Minutes of the meeting chaired Dr Letema on Thursday read: “The board received letters of complaints on the misconduct, procurement and financial mismanagement of the institution which was tabled and deliberated at length.”
Dr Letema said the board would invite the anti-corruption agency, the auditor-general and the Efficiency Monitoring Unit to investigate the three executives.
The Galana-Kulalu project, currently behind schedule on cash crunch, was launched by Mr Wamalwa last month.
According to NIB, which is implementing the project, they are targeting 4,000 acres by the end of June, ahead of the planned launch by Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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