Court battle for Fazul over his continued stay at NGO board

Controversial NGOs Coordination Board CEO Fazul Mahamed. Activist Okiya Omtatah has gone to court, asking it to stop the government from extending Mr Mahamed’s tenure. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • There are reports that the agency’s board of directors has quietly extended it by six months.

  • Mr Mahamed enjoys sharp dressing and rarely grants on-the-record interviews.

  • Mr Mahamed has been in office, meeting Jubilee politicians, and registering their foundations, or lauding their progress.

Mr Fazul Mahamed, the controversial Non-Governmental Organisations Coordination Board chief executive, has weathered many storms that would have otherwise ended careers of other lesser mortals in public service, since he took up the job in 2014.

But now, in what promises to be his biggest battle yet, the 31-year-old is facing a spirited battle for his continued stay in office.

Activist Okiya Omtatah has gone to court, asking it to stop the government from extending Mr Mahamed’s tenure, which should have ended in November 24, 2017.

There are reports that the agency’s board of directors has quietly extended it by six months.

FIRST BRAKES

On December 7, 2017, Lady Justice Hellen Wasilwa of the Employment and Labour Relations Court applied the first brakes in Mr Mahamed’s sprawling career — and which had, until then, seemed to defy and dodge every bullet sent its away.

“The court is hereby pleased to issue an interim order restraining the Interior CS or any person acting in his authority from renewing, re-appointing or in any way, whatsoever extending Mr Mahamed’s contractual tenure,” Lady Justice Wasilwa ruled.

But Mr Mahamed, who enjoys sharp dressing and rarely grants on-the-record interviews, has defied that bullet too, and almost two months after the order, he is still in office.

“This just shows the impunity we are dealing with,” Mr Omtatah told Nation.

SURCHARGE FAZUL

In the case that will be heard this week, Mr Omtatah now wants Mr Mahamed surcharged for the time he has been serving outside his contract.

“When the case comes up for hearing, I will seek to amend the petition to recover whatever may have been spent on him after the end of his tenure,” said Mr Omtatah.

As it stands, Mr Mahamed’s fate now rests with Lady Justice Hellen Wasilwa, who will this week start hearing the case in which Mr Omtatah wants the court to order Mr Mahamed’s removal from office.

For Mr Mahamed, who took up the job in 2014 after serving as a senior director at the National Authority for the Campaign against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (Nacada), his seems to be a crackdown that strikes just at the right time – and it is always in the government’s favour.

MEETING POLITICIANS

And while the order against his continued stay in office will be under the court’s scrutiny, Mr Mahamed has been in office, meeting Jubilee politicians, and registering their foundations, or lauding their progress.

Last week, he met Nairobi Senator Johnson Sakaja and registered a foundation by the legislator’s name, a day after he met Eldas MP Adan Keynan and registered another foundation for him.

After the August 8 elections, Mr Mahamed has met, in the photos he happily posts on his social media pages, Starehe MP Charles Njagua, also known as Jaguar, his Lang’ata counterpart Nixon Generali Korir and Nairobi Senator Mike Sonko.

For Mr Sonko’s case, Mr Mahamed had received a round of backlash after he awarded the governor’s Sonko Rescue Team a certificate of recognition for “its exemplary work” only three months after it was registered.

MET BLOGGERS

Further, Mr Mahamed also met Jubilee-leaning bloggers Pauline Njoroge and Ndung’u Nyoro and promised to register a group for them to enable them “advance their charity work in a more structured and professional manner.”

But while he happily registered and lauded Jubilee-leaning NGOs, Mr Mahamed ruthlessly cracked the whip on those seen to be leaning towards the opposition.

This was especially manifest in the run-up to the August 8 election, and even more ruthlessly after the controversial October 26 repeat presidential election when the regulator targeted groups thought to be planning to file cases challenging President Uhuru Kenyatta’s win.

After the October poll, Mr Mahamed ordered the closure of Kura Yangu, Sauti Yangu and We, the People, two powerful consortiums of pro-democracy NGOs.

The two joined the list of former Permanent Secretary Ethics John Githongo-led Inuka Kenya, Katiba of renowned activist Prof Yash Pal Ghai and Muslims for Human Rights (Muhuri) associated with Khalef Khalifa, who has filed a petition at the Supreme Court together with activist and lawyer Njonjo Mue.

LETHAL

And though the groups later got an injunction to continue with their operations, Mr Mahamed had made his point: He could strike. He did and it was lethal.

In the days to the August 8 poll, Mr Mahamed put on the chopping list the Rosemary Odinga Foundation, an NGO associated with opposition leader Raila Odinga’s firstborn daughter.

Then he cracked the whip on former Vice president Kalonzo Musyoka’s foundation, as well as that of Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero.

His dalliance with the law, however, and apparent disregard for it at times, seems to be just getting started, with High Court judge George Odunga in September finding him to have “run amok” when he stopped a Sh2 billion US-backed International Foundation for Electoral Systems reforms programme.

“If it is proved that the tribunal, person has run wild and amok, and at worst has gone on a frolic of its own, and become an unruly horse, it is the duty of the High Court through its supervisory jurisdiction to pull the leash and firmly point the delineated legal path that the tribunal, person or authority is enjoined by law to tread and to follow,” Justice Odunga said in his ruling on September 18.

This week, it will be the turn of Lady Justice Wasilwa to take a bite of the cherry that the Fazul Mahamed saga has lately become.