The Mombasa Employment and Labour Relations Court has temporarily stopped recruitment of a Kenya Ports Authority managing director after a civil society group moved to court terming the process nontransparent.
Judge James Rika on Wednesday barred the board of directors from conducting the interviews to fill the position which fell vacant following controversial resignation of its former MD Daniel Manduku.
Rika said the country is currently dealing with a life threatening pandemic and that Mombasa county itself has been affected thus it is not a conducive environment to conduct transparent interviews.
He said the interviews will not be inclusive and it is not conducive to carry out a nationwide search to fill the position whose governance must conform to the Constitution.
The court further said the authority will not be affected by keeping the position vacant since the entity has an acting MD whose mandate runs up to September.
Rika further said the port will not affected in any way since each department has its own general manager who would ensure its operations run smoothly since the interim orders will not affect them.
The judge further allowed the Dock Workers Union (DWU) to join the petition as interested parties.
He noted that the union had demonstrated its interest and had stakes in how its members are managed.
He said the union was a major industrial player who should be allowed to ventilate its concerns in the recruitment process.
Commission for Human Rights and Justice through its director Julius Ogogoh filed the petition on May 7 suing the the KPA’s board of directors, the CS of Transport and Infrastructure and the Attorney General.
The civil society group wanted the court to issue interim orders temporarily suspending the recruitment pending full hearing of the matter
The petitioner termed the scheduled recruitment process as unconstitutional therefore should be suspended.
But the respondents opposed the petition and termed the application pre-emptive, speculative and seeks to waste judicial resources.
The board of directors said the law regulating the board does not require unnecessary intervention of the court.
The board said despite the ongoing fight against Covid 19, government business, including the filling of the position, must go on.
The workers union who sought to be enjoined the matter as an interested party said the matter directly involves its members.
The union said they currently have major issues affecting the terms and conditions of members, which cannot be dealt with effectively with the absence of an MD.
