Nairobi Metropolitan Services, union head to court over staff secondment

What you need to know:

  • Kenya County Government Workers Union, Nairobi branch, moved to court seeking to quash the secondment of the 6, 852 workers by the Public Service Commission to NMS.

  • The redeployment of the county government employees has been facing opposition by both Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko and the workers’ union.

The row over secondment of more than 6, 000 City Hall staff to Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) is now headed to the corridors of justice.

This is after Kenya County Government Workers Union, Nairobi branch, moved to court seeking to quash the secondment of the 6, 852 workers by the Public Service Commission to NMS.

The redeployment of the county government employees has been facing opposition by both Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko and the workers’ union with the two parties accusing PSC and NMS of usurping the powers of Nairobi County Public Service Board.

Governor Sonko also accused the NMS of choosing to pursue the implementation of the Deed of Transfer of functions in “an atrocious and repugnant manner” and ordered the county employees to ignore the directive.

Branch Secretary Boniface Waweru said the decision to move to the court was informed by the fact that the workers were never consulted before the implementation of the redeployment.

He also complained of confusion in the implementation of the Deed of Transfer of functions saying that workers were receiving instructions from different quarters.

"Our aim is to have the secondment exercise stopped in its entirety because as workers and crucial stakeholders in the Deed we were never consulted by the service commission," said Mr Waweru.

On April 6, NMS and PSC kicked off issuance of redeployment letters to 6, 052 workers at Uhuru Park.

Last week, another 800 officers drawn from the security and enforcement department as well as sub-county administrators were also seconded to the Mohammed Badi-led office.

However, a section of the workers did not turn up for the exercise, citing orders from the union and Governor Sonko.

Without giving the numbers of those who failed to report for the redeployment exercise, Mr Waweru claimed the group of workers as well as those who showed up but failed to provide crucial documents such as their personal and work identification cards were being harassed and facing intimidation from the said authorities.

Consequently, the union went to court seeking the two agencies to be barred from harassing or intimidating the workers citing violation of the fundamental human rights and freedoms of the workers as enshrined in Chapter Four of the Constitution.

Subsequently, the Labour and Employment Relations Court issued orders barring both NMS and PSC from firing or victimising City Hall staff who have not complied with the secondment to the new office.

"Pending hearing and determination of this application, an order is hereby issued restraining the respondents from terminating, harassing, intimidating or apprehension of the Applicants members who attended but lacked the necessary documentation and those who may have failed to attend the secondment exercise," read the court order issued by Justice Hellen Wasilwa on April 30, 2020.

The case will be heard on May 13, 2020.