Former IEBC commissioner Lentangule account frozen over Sh1.8bn Telkom staff pay

Three lawyers, among them a former commissioner of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) have been ordered to appear in court over the spending of Sh1.8 billion they received on behalf of 2,000 retrenched employees of Telkom Kenya Ltd.

The court also froze the bank accounts of IEBC ex-commissioner Thomas Letangule and Antony Oluoch pending the hearing and determination of the case filed by the former Telkom employees, who were retrenched in 2006.

Justice Grace Nzioka declined to strike out the case as urged by Mr Letang’ule, who received Sh1.3 billion, and Mr Oluoch, who received Sh500 million.

Telkom agreed in a consent recorded before the Employment and Labour Relations Court to pay its former workers their dues.

In the consent, the lawyers’ fees was agreed at Sh30 million for Mr Letangule and Sh20 million for Mr Oluoch.

According to the consent, Sh150 million was to be remitted to the Kenya Revenue Authority as tax.

The workers are now claiming that they did not receive all their dues as agreed in the consent and less amounts were deposited in their bank accounts.

The former employees had urged Justice Nzioka to compel lawyers Letangule, Oluoch and S.M. Kitonga to tabulate how they distributed the money they received from their former employer.

In her ruling, Justice Nzioka dismissed an objection by the lawyers, saying the litigants have a right to know how the money received on their behalf by the lawyers was spent.

The judge referred the case to the labour court that determined the case in 2015 to address the issues raised by the former Telkom workers.