Nakuru County Assembly Speaker Susan Kihika on Wednesday urged the employment and labour relations court to strike out a case by former deputy speaker Samuel Tonui over his ejection.
Through lawyer Lawrence Karanja, the speaker and clerk to the assembly Joseph Malinda told Justice Stephen Radido that the matter was purely political and had nothing to do with infringement of labour relations.
“This is a political matter which can best be dealt with by a political parties tribunal. There is no employee-employer relationship in the matter,” said Karanja insisting that it was outside the confines of the court.
Karanja asked the court to dismiss the case arguing that it was a waste of time and an abuse of the court process as political issues are a preserve of the political parties tribunal.
Tonui, through lawyer Bernard Ngetich, told the court that the county assembly did not accord him sufficient opportunity to defend himself under the constitution but instead used the law retrospectively to have him removed from office.
Ngetich said that the ELR court had the jurisdiction to hear the case as it was an infringement of rights of an officer working for the good of the people. He told the court that it was an outright labour dispute between an employee and an employer which ought to be heard in the labour relations court.
He further told the court that Tonui’s removal was riddled with irregularities which do not conform to the standing orders of the assembly and urged the court to fully hear and determine the dispute. In court files, Tonui asserts that his removal was occasioned by disorder and that voting was done in an impulsive manner as the law requires that it be done by secret ballot which was not adhered to.
Tonui states that the clerk to the county assembly engineered his removal from office permanently by amending the standing orders to provide for a less than 75 percent minimum support for a simple majority.
He is seeking to have his removal from office reversed and also to be declared the duly elected deputy speaker with full salary and allowances pending hearing and determination of the matter.
Tonui was voted out for alleged misconduct, insubordination and lack of integrity.
Justice Radido set June 12 for ruling of the preliminary objection.