Suspended chief executive officer of State-owned National Biosafety Authority (NBA) Roy Mugiira has failed in his bid in court to block disciplinary proceedings against him based on allegations of financial misappropriation.
Dr Mugiira, who was suspended in July last year, wanted the Employment and Labour Relations Court to halt proceedings on grounds that the process leading to his suspension was marred by glaring irregularities and his rights to fair administrative action were violated.
The court was informed that the NBA board of directors had also disregarded a directive from the parent ministry through the Principal Secretary, State Department for Agriculture to put on hold Dr Mugiira's suspension pending further consultations.
But Justice Stella Rutto said the court could not intervene by interdicting the disciplinary action or barring NBA board from carrying out its duty to discipline the suspended CEO.
However, the judge advised NBA to ensure the persons in the disciplinary committee are neutral and were not in the ad hoc team that recommended Dr Mugiira's suspension.
This was in view of the NBA's assertion that before Dr Mugiira's suspension on July 5, 2024, two board members, Abduba Dabbasa and Dr Roselida Owuor, had been replaced by their respective appointing authorities while two others Archibald Munyi and Caroline Mweni have since left the board.
Hence, NBA Corporation Secretary Moses Sande said when Dr Mugiira eventually appears before the board, he would face four substantially new board members who are not privy to the disciplinary case against him and the issue of perceived biases would not arise.
"In the circumstances, the court will not hinder the NBA’s prerogative to discipline the claimant. Be that as it may, the NBA should undertake the disciplinary process in strict compliance with the statutory procedural fairness safeguards," said the judge.
"Specifically, the composition of the committee of the board that may be appointed to sit in the disciplinary committee to handle Dr Mugiira's case should be as neutral as possible and should not include members who either sat in the audit committee or the ad hoc committee."
Dr Mugiira was suspended after an ad hoc committee appointed by the board to interrogate an internal audit report on budget implementation for the financial years 2022/2023 and 2023/2024, made adverse findings against him.
He was replaced by Mr Nehemiah Ng'etich, who was appointed as CEO in acting capacity.
The corporation secretary, Mr Sande, told court that the board considered the report and established that there was glaring financial impropriety on the part of Dr Mugiira as the Accounting Officer.
Some of the recommendations included disciplinary action to be taken against any officers found to have been implicated in any malpractice.
Mr Sande said the board was apprehensive that if the CEO was allowed to continue operating from his office while the disciplinary process against him was ongoing, he would interfere with the process.
Relating to claims of disregarding the directive of the Principal Secretary to halt the process, Mr Sande said the letter by the Principal Secretary was delivered to the NBA on July 10, 2024 five days after the board meeting which suspended the CEO.
Challenging the disciplinary proceedings, Dr Mugiira protested that two board members who belonged to the audit committee that had authored the audit report were in the disciplinary committee.
"The court takes the view that it was not prudent for the board to have a considerable number of its members (five out of eight), sit in the ad hoc committee, bearing in mind that some members may have been required to sit in the disciplinary committee in the event the matter progressed to that point," said the judge.
She added that it would not be fair and just to have the members who sat in the audit committee and the ad hoc committee sit in the disciplinary committee.
"That would be against the principles of natural justice, noting the sentiments expressed by the ad hoc committee during its deliberations in the meeting," she stated.
