House team throws out Naikuni lawyer

MPs on Thursday kicked out a lawyer from a session investigating the controversial retrenchment of 600 Kenya Airways employees last month.

Mr Kiragu Kimani, who appeared for the airline’s chief executive officer Titus Naikuni was thrown out of the proceedings after he tried to engage the MPs in an argument regarding his client.

Mr Naikuni refused to give evidence to the Parliamentary Labour and Social Welfare Committee, saying it would be sub judice since the matter is in court.

His lawyer, Mr Kimani, however, provoked the wrath of committee members after he tried to forcefully speak to the committee for his client.

“My client is being denied his constitutional rights,” he argued.

Infuriated by his responses, Nyakach MP Pollyns Ochieng said Parliament was not a court of law, further ordering him out of the room.

Committee chairperson Sophia Abdi Noor called in the Sergeant at Arms to help kick out the lawyer. She had earlier denied him a chance to give any comments on behalf of his client.

Mr Naikuni and the chairman of the Kenya Airways Board, Mr Evanson Mwaniki, told the MPs they were legally advised that it would be prejudicial to discuss the matter before the committee.

On Wednesday, the committee said it was frustrated by the investigation which is based on a petition by the aggrieved former employees of the company.

The committee was forced to adjourn its Wednesday session after Treasury PS Joseph Kinyua failed to turn up and had sent Investment Secretary Esther Koimett to represent him.

The committee intends to question the PS on the rationale used by the board in retrenching the 600 employees.