Ombudsman urges banning of Fazul Mahamed from public office

Yusuf Fazul Mahamed may have become the youngest boss of a top government body.

Now the Ombudsman says he has shamed the government and should refund the more than Sh8.5 million he earned in cumulative salary.

In a damaging report, the Commission on Administrative Justice (CAJ) on Thursday said the man who has been the executive director of the NGOs Coordination Board should be fired immediately and barred from holding public office because he was hired without relevant academic documents.

FORGED PAPERS

“Fazul should not hold public office for violating Chapter six of the Constitution of Kenya- Leadership and Integrity," CAJ report says.

"He presented forged academic documents and false information during the interview. Furthermore he has been found culpable of abuse of power and misconduct."

And after he took the job, the CAJ says he intimidated his juniors, made rip-offs in per diem from foreign trips he shouldn’t have made and promoted or transferred staff without following set policy.

The findings of the CAJ may open a new front for controversy.

COURT ORDER

Last week, Mr Fazul, 29, was reinstated into his job after Devolution Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri sent him on compulsory leave to look into his appointment and dissolved the board.

The CAJ report was published on Thursday in spite of a claim from Mr Fazul that there was a court order barring the Ombudsman from releasing it.

Mr Fazul on Thursday told Nation.co.ke that the court order issued on October 25 barred the Ombudsman from investigating, publishing and releasing the report to relevant agencies.

LAWYERS' FURY

He vowed to lodge a contempt case against the Ombudsman for disobeying a stay order, which was to be reviewed next week on Monday.

“That means the report he is releasing cannot be implemented,” he says.

His lawyers said the report is in bad faith and has no effect since the commission does not have any power...on the matter contained in the investigation report.

“We have already initiated the process of instituting contempt of court (charges) against the Chairperson of the Commission on Administrative Justice, Amollo Otiende, in person,” his lawyers Munyao, Muthama and Kashindi said in a statement.

METEORIC RISE

In the document, Dr Amollo admits he had received letters from both Mr Fazul and the board’s vice-chairperson Njoki Ndiba on existing cases touching on the issue the CAJ was investigating.

But the Ombudsman argued the case cited had been concluded long before the CAJ was told it would be interfering.

Mr Fazul’s meteoric rise started in December 2014, when he landed the job of regulating NGOs in the country.

He could register or deregister them if they failed to file returns.

TOUGHER TERMS

But the Ombudsman says the NGOs Coordination Board bent rules to hire him for the job.

His predecessor, Hezron O. Mc’Obewa, had been subjected to tougher conditions, such as being required to have a postgraduate degree and 15 years’ experience in a senior management position.

Mr Fazul, the CAJ found, applied for the same job under different requirements: five years’ experience and a basic degree in social sciences, business administration or a related course.