A front view of Harambee Plaza in Nairobi. FILE PHOTO | NMG
Summary
- Nine suspended delegates have moved to the Co-operative Tribunal seeking a reversal of the suspension on grounds that it was meant to stop them from vying for elective posts at the annual general meeting.
- The management of the 92,000-member society has, however, denied the allegations arguing that the delegates were suspended for, among others, storming the office of the acting chief executive officer and causing disturbances.
Trouble is once again brewing at the giant Harambee Sacco where
suspended members have accused directors of planning to block their
participation in an upcoming board elections to challenge the
incumbents.
Nine suspended delegates have moved to the
Co-operative Tribunal seeking a reversal of the suspension on grounds
that it was meant to stop them from vying for elective posts at the
annual general meeting.
The management of the
92,000-member society has, however, denied the allegations arguing that
the delegates were suspended for, among others, storming the office of
the acting chief executive officer and causing disturbances.
The
suspended members insist that they only visited the office of the CEO
on January 10 to seek clarification over an alleged loss of Sh2.9
million cheques.
The suspended individuals said they were particularly targeting
the Sacco secretary Charles Konzolo and treasurer Meshack Odero
Nyangute, who signed the lost cheque.
“The sole intent
of the respondent to suspend the applicants for purported transgressions
alleged to have been committed more than two months age smacks of
malice, bad faith, spite, contempt and is mere charade meant to shield
the two impugned officials (Mr Konzolo and Mr Nyangute) from facing
competition in the yet to be announced AGM,” the suspended members say
in their application.
They have attached copies of
five cheques worth a total Sh2.9 million they claim were issued
irregularly and lost from the sacco.
The suspended members claim that loss of the cheques were just a small part of a mega scam at the sacco.
But
the management says it swiftly wrote to Co-operative Bank on September
12, 2007 asking it to stop processing of the lost cheques and
successfully recovered Sh2.2 million.
The sacco insists it is still pursuing the remaining Sh635,000 with Co-op Bank
.
On
Tuesday, the applicants, who are all serving members of the disciplined
forces, through their lawyer Dennis Kimathi, pleaded with the tribunal
to lift their suspension to enable them to participate in the upcoming
elections.
The
elections must be held before the end of April but the suspended
members say the directors have continued to withhold the date in order
to ambush the members and lock out those seeking to vie for vacant
positions.
Nixon Odoli, Delip Bolo, Martin Khaemba,
Timothy Ouma, Stephen Ndambuki, Bonface Murunga, Peter Kipkech, Ahmed
Hussein Ali and Sylvester Oduor insist they were not present at the
January 10 meeting where the confrontation is alleged to have occurred.
The
management has in turn accused the applicants of causing commotion and
interrupting operations at the credit control and loans sections leading
to their suspension.
Acting CEO Renson Mwandoe and Mr
Konzolo accuse the petitioners of habitually reporting to Harambee
Plaza as early as 9 a.m. and staying the whole day, disrupting
operations.
No comments :
Post a Comment