Cotu wants Uhuru to punish CS Chelugui for defying NSSF nominee order
Labour Cabinet Secretary Simon Chelugui.
The Central Organisation Trade Unions (Cotu) wants President Uhuru to crack the whip on Labour Cabinet Secretary Simon Chelugui and his Principal Secretary for failing to appoint its nominee to the NSSF board as directed on Labour Day.
If the ministry does not ratify the appointment, then CS Chelugui and NSSF board members should be dismissed for disobeying direct orders from the President, Cotu secretary-general Francis Atwoli said.
“As patriotic Kenyans, we remind the President that he should not be disrespected by his appointees and that the failure to appoint Cotu’s nominee as earlier directed warrants … dismissal of the involved officials,” Mr Atwoli said.
Mr Kenyatta issued the directive on May 1 during Labour celebrations, and Cotu is concerned about the ministry’s refusal to gazette the appointment of its nominee Rose Omamo to the NSSF board.
“In an act of defiance and contempt, both the Cabinet Secretary and the Principal Secretary of the Ministry of Labour have disobeyed the President. In no other democracy in the world do presidential appointees, working at the mercies of the president, behave [the way] these two have conducted themselves,” Mr Atwoli said.
Cotu is particularly irked by the ministry for passing the responsibility of gazetting Ms Omamo name to the Head of Public Service.
“This action warrants further action from the President if his power and authority is anything to go by,” Cotu said.
The trade union accused the ministry of embarking on a “misinformation campaign” and changing positions on why it has not gazetted Ms Omamo as a workers’ representative on the NSSF board.
Mr Atwoli said the ministry at first argued that it did not gazette Ms Omamo because of a query on regional balance but after it was established that no region was represented twice, the ministry started questioning the nominee’s capacity to serve on the board.
The Cotu boss said Ms Omamo is “articulate” and “runs one of the giant unions in Kenya, the Amalgamated Union of Kenya Metal Workers which is an affiliate of the Industrial Global Union that represents over 50 million workers in 140 countries”.
For this “blatant” disregard of the President’s orders, Cotu wants disciplinary action taken against officials involved in delaying the appointment of its nominee.
