Nakuru court orders council to hold AGM

A Nakuru court has dismissed an application by four councillors that wanted the Municipal Council of Nakuru annual general meeting stopped. Senior Resident Magistrate Gerald Mutiso instead, ordered the council to convene the AGM in seven days in compliance with the Local Authorities Act.

The Act says all local authorities should hold AGMs between June 30 and August 15. Last week, councillors Rose Lai, Gibe Abdul, John Bett and David Gikaria had gone to court to block the council from holding the AGM. The four told Mutiso they learnt of the meeting through a letter.

They said the town clerk wanted to lock them out of the meeting. The magistrate said they was no evidence the town clerk wanted the four councillors barred from the meeting. "Though the town clerk is supposed to serve notices to individual members, an accidental omission of some members should not affect validity of the meeting," said Mutiso.

Mutiso said that the councillors had failed to demonstrate that an AGM would cause them irreparable injury which cannot be compensated in damages. The magistrate validated the town clerk's position that the councillors' application was bad in law, inept, incompetent and an abuse of the court process.