The Employment and Labour Relations Court has frozen the recruitment of a new chief executive of the Council of Legal Education (CLE), pending the determination of a petition filed by Emmanuel Wambua Kituku who is contesting his removal.
Justice Linnet Ndolo directed CLE to maintain the status quo, meaning that a new CEO cannot be recruited pending further directions from the court.
Dr Kituku rushed to court after the CLE declined to confirm him to the position.
“That in the meantime, restraining order to preserve the substance of these proceedings, I direct that the status quo regarding the position of Chief Executive Officer of the respondent be maintained,” Justice Ndolo said in a ruling on Monday.
The case will be heard on January 17, 2023.
Dr Kituku said he was offered the position in October 2021 after emerging successful through a competitive interview.
He was to serve for three years after completing a six-month supervised probation.
He says he ought to have been confirmed by May 31, this year when the probation lapsed but it was delayed.
The advocate and lecturer at the University of Nairobi says he was informed in July he would appear before an appraisal committee to evaluate his performance.
After the appraisal, he was allegedly informed he would be subjected to further probation of six months but said that was flawed and a departure from the existing framework.
He says in court documents that he protested against the methodology adopted and a performance evaluation committee later declared that he had failed the performance review and he would not be confirmed.
“That the results of the Performance Evaluation were as a result of a flawed Performance Appraisal System, which was marred with numerous shortcomings and further was carried out in a manner that was non-expeditious, inefficient, unlawful and procedurally unfair,” he said.
Dr Kituku says he believes he was fired because of various decisions he made during his tenure, including inviting investigative agencies to audit CLE’s Enterprise Resource Planning System for purposes of uncovering erroneous award of marks in ATP Examinations and also probe exam leakage that allegedly happened in November 2021, among others.
