Bomet Woman Representative Linet Chepkorir alias Toto has been sued over alleged nepotism.
Collins Barno and Stanley Kiprotich have filed a suit at the Employment and Labour Relations Court in Nairobi against Toto for allegedly employing her immediate family members.
The duo claimed the legislator failed to adhere to minimum requirements of transparency, fair competition, merit and integrity in recruitment of her office staff.
While appointing the six persons, Ms Chepkorir also totally ignored the gender principle which is a requirement in public appointments as the dictates of the Constitution. There are only three women out of the 15 staff she has employed in her office
The Appointments
They claim that six of the 15 members of staff hired by the the Women Representative are her relatives.
The six include Bett Kipkirui (county manager, office of woman representative), Dominic Mutai (deputy manager), Sheila Chepng’eno (county coordinator), Josephat Kiplangat (field officer), Pius Kiplangat (communications officer) and Emmanuel Kipkorir (media personnel).
“While appointing the six persons, Ms Chepkorir also totally ignored the gender principle which is a requirement in public appointments as the dictates of the Constitution. There are only three women out of the 15 staff she has employed in her office,” said the petitioners.
According to the petitioners the appointments were not made after public participation relatives taking and now home 75 percent of the total monthly salaries allocated to the staff in the payroll in the office raises suspicion of wanting to defraud the government.
“Some of the appointed support staffs of Bomet County women Representative have serious integrity issues and are not fit to serve as public officers. They were not cleared by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, (EACC)” they said.
Null and Void
They now want court to declare the appointments null and void as they termed them unlawful and unconditional.
Justice James Rika however transferred the petition to the Employment and Labour Relations court in Eldoret stating that there was no reason for the case to be filed and heard at Nairobi.
“This Petition involves Bomet County. The Employment and Labour Relations Court is in Eldoret, Kisumu, Bungoma and Nakuru, which centres are nearer to Bomet, than Nairobi. There is no reason for the Petition to be filed and heard in the Court at Nairobi,” said Justice Rika.
