IG Joseph Boinnet was summoned by a High Court on Friday for failing to obey orders requiring him to arrest pensions director Shem Nyakutu.
The Nakuru court said
Nyakutu
failed to attend court to show cause as to why he did not effect retired teachers' payment.
He is also required to explain why he failed to honour the promise he made in court regarding the disbursement.
Justice Janet Mulwa directed the IG to appear in person to explain why he failed to bring the pensions boss to court.
"The director of pensions is not in court today despite the IG being served with the orders. No explanation has been given," Mulwa said.
He said said Nyakutu risks
being committed to civil jail.
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Nyakutu pledged on August 15 to disburse Sh1.5 billion in 30 days to teachers who retired from 1997 going forward.
The official said then that they had held discussions with the Teachers Service Commission on how to roll out the payments.
He said they had Sh1.5 million at their disposal, and assured the court that the retirees would be paid in the period.
Nyakutu was required to send the money to the retirees' accounts and give the court a report on September 16 on the unpaid amount.
But Dominic Kimata, who represented 52,000 retirees, refuted his report saying the payment process has been frustrating.
He reported that no single penny has been deposited in the retirees’ accounts despite Nyakutu’s promise.
"We have been in court for 14 years because government officials are deliberately disobeying court orders. The court has a duty to ensure the law is obeyed," he said.
Kimata asked the court to order TSC chief executive Nancy Macharia
to attend proceedings and explain what they were doing with regard to processing the payment.
But TSC lawyer Lawrence Karanja said:
"The CEO has been doing a lot. As from today, we have already processed 25,000 forms and forwarded them to the director of pensions but they have only picked 300 forms."
Karanja said Macharia was doing everything possible to help the retirees and that there was no need for her to be summoned.
He further told the court that the last volume of retiree’s files will be cleared in seven days and forwarded to the pensions director for payments.
State counsel Wachira Anguyo, representing the office of the Attorney General and the director, told the court he had a letter dated September 22 which indicated Nyakutu was unwell.
The letter further stated that the office was doing its best to make sure payments were facilitated through the forms forwarded to them by the TSC.