Communications Authority board cited for contempt

Communications Authority of Kenya board chairman Mr Ben Ngene Gituku during a press conference on July 9, 2015. CA board has been cited for contempt in a case that could see its board members stripped of their duties again. PHOTO | LILIAN OCHIENG | NATION MEDIA GROUP 

In Summary

• “Our lawyer wrote back to the fellows, the board was returned and is in office legally. The case is finished and gone until the final determination is heard, the board is carrying on with its duties,” said CA board Chairman Ben Gituku.
• The current contempt case is brought about by a case which saw the regulator’s board disbanded in May, owing to its illegality.

By LILIAN OCHIENG
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Communications Authority (CA) board has been cited for contempt in a case that could see its board members stripped of duties again, stalling the regulator’s activities.

The application filed before the Court of Appeal on September 24 states that the board's members disobeyed a court order to vacate office.

“This court in its ruling July 31 sustained the quashing order, nullifying the appointments of the seven board members as CA board members, issued by Justice Odunga on May 29, but stayed the appointment of another board,” said the application notice filed by lawyer Anthony Kabathi.

“The board members have in blatant violation and contempt of this court’s order and without an iota of justification, resumed their former positions as members of CA.”

The current contempt case is brought about by a case which saw the regulator’s board disbanded in May, owing to its illegality.

However, the two parties in the dispute, CA and complainant Adrian Kamotho Njenga, represented by lawyer Anthony Kabathi hold to a different opinion regarding the application.

“Our lawyer wrote back to the fellows, the board was returned and is in office legally. The case is finished and gone until the final determination is heard, the board is carrying on with its duties,” said CA board Chairman Ben Gituku.

BOARD STILL IN OFFICE

The board has since distributed licenses to TV broadcasters, 100 more applications are lined up for licenses at the CA according to Director General Francis Wangusi.

The board also continues to manage the regulator as well as employ and ascertain key issues that affect communication.

Kabathi however told Nation that, “Any action taken in violation of the said court order is illegal to the hilt. In the circumstances our instructions are to demand, which we hereby do, that the immediate former members of the board vacate office forthwith.”

CA board is also under investigations by the Commission on Administrative of Justice for spending huge allowances irregularly.

Otiende Amollo, the Chairman of the Commission on Administrative Justice, said in a letter to ICT Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i that, “between July and November 2014, the board spent over Sh10 million in allowances.”

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