Two senior county officials have survived a six-month civil jail term over contempt of court charges.
The industrial court in Nakuru ruled that the two – Nakuru County interim secretary Joseph Motari and the Rift Valley Water Services Board chief executive Japheth Mutai – and five others, including Nakuru County governor Kinuthia Mbugua, were not served with the court orders.
This is after reinstated Nakuru Water and Sanitation Services Company (Nawassco) board director Geoffrey Asanyo moved to court and obtained a leave to file a contempt application against them.
Asanyo, whose contract had been terminated by the Nakuru County before the court reversed it, had argued that Mutai and Motari, through a letter to Nawassco managing director John Cheruiyot, termed them an illegal board of directors despite court orders reinstating them.
Justice Byram Ongaya established that Asanyo failed to show that at the time of writing the offensive letter, the top county officials had been served with orders, directing them to convene a board directors’ meeting.
Nakuru County government, through the Rift Valley Water Services Board, advertised six directorship positions in Nawassco on March 5 while still in service but the decision was reversed. The positions included Asanyo’s (board director representing the local business community), which prompted him to challenge the recruitment process and seek a reversal of the decision for unlawful termination.
The court then ordered Cheruiyot to convene a meeting of directors within five days from the date of the ruling to deliberate on the board’s prevailing status of the company’s board membership.
Judge Ongaya also ordered Cheruiyot to file the deliberations in court for the court to make further appropriate orders.