The Nairobi Industrial court will today determine whether two cases transferred from a Nakuru court challenging the National Social Security Fund Act will be consolidated with three others.
The lawyers in the three cases last week said they needed time to read through the issues raised in Nakuru before seeking directions on whether to oppose the cases from being consolidated or not.
Appearing before industrial court judge Nduma Nderi, Labour Cabinet Secretary Kazungu Kambi’s lawyer, Fred Ngatia, asked the court to postpone the matter for another week, arguing that the cases had stagnated remittance of social benefit monies.
Last week, Nakuru industrial court Justice Byrum Ongaya allowed the transfer of the two cases challenging the newly increased statutory deductions. Ongaya also extended orders barring NSSF from effecting the deductions until final determination of the matter.
He issued the directions in a case in which the Kenya Plantations and Agricultural Workers Union has filed a petition seeking a stay of execution of the new NSSF Act, saying some of its provisions offended the constitution.
The other case transferred from Nakuru involves 70 prison warders who filed a suit in court seeking to bar NSSF from effecting the new deductions. The warders had argued that they were hired as permanent staff and pensionable members of NSSF, adding that the contract under which they were employed was still in force.
This comes even as a vicious battle lingers between Labour Cabinet Secretary Kazungu Kambi and Cotu secretary general Francis Atwoli following the removal of the latter from the NSSF Board of Trustees on Friday.