House team threatens sanctions against KQ boss
Parliament's Committee on Labour and Social Welfare has threatened sanctions against the Kenya Airways boss, Dr Titus Naikuni.
The warning to Dr Naikuni came after, for the second time, he failed to appear before the House Committee.
"We want him to come and tell us the truth about the retrenchment of workers. If he fails again, then we'll have to slap him with sanctions as provided in the Constitution and in the Standing orders," committee chair Sofia Abdi Noor said in Nairobi’s Continental House, which was the venue of the meeting.
Under the National Assembly (Powers and Privileges) Act, the committee has the power to order any person to attend before it and to give evidence or to produce any paper, book, record or document in the possession or under the control of that person.
Failure to attend is an offence, punishable, under the court of law, by a Sh2,000 fine, or a jail-term of one year or both.
The committee chairperson said the sanctions, should the Kenya Airways boss miss the Thursday meeting, would serve as an example to other people who may want to ignore parliamentary summons.
"The first time, he called, and told us that he won’t make it for the committee meeting because he was travelling abroad; today (Tuesday) when we called his office, they told us that he was not coming," said Ms Noor.
The committee has been investigating the massive retrenchment of employees, in what Dr Naikuni has described as cost-cutting measures that could save the airline Sh1.2 billion.
“We followed the labour laws to the letter, and looked around at what is happening in the marketplace in Kenya and Africa and packaged the best and most fair deal for our employees,” said Dr Naikuni when the programme was concluded.
“Our programme is generous to those affected from both a severance and provident perspective. Those leaving the business will have an estimated average pay-out of up to Sh 2 million.”
The workers however have said their dismissal was inhuman, illegal and discriminatory. They ministry of Labour too has said the way the retrenchment was carried out was ultravires the laid down rules.
