Mr Barrack Muluka. Political Parties Tribunal nullified his election as Amani National Congress Party secretary-general. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
12.April 2018
Political Parties Tribunal has ruled that nominated MP Godfrey Osotsi is still the Amani National Congress secretary-general.
In a ruling, the tribunal said the purported removal of Mr Osotsi and his subsequent replacement with Barrack Muluka was irregular and unlawful.
The members, led by Chairman Kyalo Mbobu, Hassan Abdi and Ms Desma Nungo, however, rejected a plea to bar Mr Muluka from contesting the position, if the elections are called.
The Tribunal further rejected the claim that Mr Muluka did not meet the qualification for the appointment of the party secretary-general.
CONSTITUTION
They ruled that Mr Osotsi, who was replaced on October 12, 2017, through a special National Executive Council, was still the party secretary-general, until ANC holds elections, 'in strict compliance with the party constitution'.
According to the Tribunal, the office of the secretary-general was a substantive national office and the appointment of Mr Muluka was not sensitive to the party members’ legitimate expectation to participate in the decision making.
They added that the purported removal contravened several Articles of party’s constitution.
“Looking at the circumstances of the case, we are of the view that there was a deliberate move on the part of the respondents to conceal the real intention of the meeting, contrary to the party’s guiding principles and core values as enshrined in Article 8 of the party constitution. We accordingly find that the notice was defective and deceptive,” the Tribunal ruled.
PARTY UPDATES
The Tribunal heard that a special NEC was called on October 12, to allegedly receive party updates. It later turned out that the meeting was to replace Mr Osotsi. Ms Angela Gathoni Wambura and Ibrahim Memba complained that the replacement of Mr Osotsi was not in the agenda of the meeting.
They said it is Mr Osotsi, who is mandated by the constitution to issue a notice convening the NEC, did not call the meeting whose agenda was to replace him.
The party claimed that Mr Osotsi had promised to resign upon being nominated to Parliament. He signed a letter, which was later forwarded to the Registrar of Political Parties.
The Tribunal, however, ruled that the resignation of the secretary-general was not voluntary and therefore unlawful. They concurred with Mr Osotsi that the undated letter was made under duress.
“There was element of undue pressure. Having opined that the third interested party’s (Mr Osotsi) resignation was not voluntary, it follows therefore that there was no vacancy in the office of the SG. There was therefore no basis for the appointment of the fourth respondent (Mr Muluka) in the first place,” they noted.
No comments:
Post a Comment