Employees of the LSK appear to be the victims in the fight pitting president Nelson Havi and the council members as their January salaries are yet to be paid.
The Law Society of Kenya’s secretariat has 39 full-time employees and their salaries are usually paid by the 25th of every month.
A letter by eight council members to the society’s vice president Carolyne Kamende seen by the Star indicates that the delay is due to the refusal by Kamende to sign for the release of the money.null
The eight, who had always been at loggerheads with Havi, are George Omwansa, treasure Bernhard Kipkoech, Faith Odhiambo, Aluso Ingati, Ndinda Kinyili, Riziki Emukule, Beth Michoma and Carolyne Mutheu.
They had been suspended by a vote during the society’s SGM on January 18. Only Havi, his deputy Kamende and council members Esther Ang’awa and Herine Kebita remained in office.
Immediately after the SGM, Havi and team went to court and obtained an order compelling Standard Chartered Bank, the society’s banker, to allow access to its finances by two signatories rather than three or four as in the earlier arrangement. The reasoning was that some of the listed signatories had changed.
The bank requirement is that there must be four or at least three signatories to access the finances.
But a few days after he obtained the ruling, the suspended eight – who had a case in court against their suspension – obtained an order quashing their removal from office.
Kamende is the chairperson of the council’s staff and finance committee and serves as one of the signatories to its bank account.
The council complains that though Kipkoech and CEO Mercy Wambua had uploaded the monies for payment through the online portal on January 27, only Kamende’s approval was pending and she had not moved an inch.null
The February 9 letter says that Kamende has “since November 2020 cited different excuses” on why she drags her foot in approving the payments.
Among the excuses she has cited in the past, the letter says, was that she had “been blocked from accessing the bank’s online portal which information you knew or ought to have known to be untrue.”
But it also emerged that in the face of the two conflicting rulings, Havi had instructed the bank not to allow access to the finances until the two orders are regularised and the controversy resolved.
According to a letter by the bank’s lawyers to Havi, he agreed that the society “will not present any payment instructions to Standard Chartered bank …while you are endeavouring to resolve the conflict between the two rulings of the High court.”
The move is akin to using the staff as collateral damage in the fight between Havi and Wambua as the CEO is the head of the secretariat.
“The thinking within his [Havi’s] circles is that by withholding the salaries, including that of the CEO, the secretariat will suffer and Wambua will possibly quit,” a council member who declined to be named said.
In effect, the council complains, “staff members [of the society] are unable to meet their financial obligations including payment of rent, school fees and loan repayments.
“It is disheartening to receive a call from staff members whose children have been chased from school due to unpaid school fees and houses been locked due to unpaid rent,” the council members said.
If anything, they said, the issue of payment of staff was not part of the discussion at the AGM.
The eight have since suspended Havi from office, designating Kamende as the acting president.
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