The Labour ministry transferred the prerogative of appointing a director of the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) nominated by the Central Organization of Trade Union (COTU) to President Uhuru Kenyatta who issued an ultimatum over the hiring on May 1.
Labour PS Peter Tum told parliamentary committee that they had forwarded a draft gazette notice on the appointment to Head of Public Service Joseph Kinyua for direction.
President Kenyatta on Sunday directed CS Simon Chelugui to gazette the appointment of the second Cotu nominee, Rose Omamo, to the NSSF board.
The directive came after the ministry refused to approve Ms Omamo since September leading to court battles with COTU secretary general Francis Atwoli and stalling NSSF board meetings.
The ministry still remains uncomfortable with the appointment of Ms Omamo whose dossier they have forwarded to Mr Kinyua.
There are questions around the academic qualifications of Atwoli appointe (Omamo) who never went beyond secondary school.
“We have handed a draft gazette notice to the Head of Public Service alongside a dossier explaining that our position has not changed on the nominee qualifications. If he approves the gazette notice, we will gazette. The nominee only has Form Four qualifications.” PS Tum said.
President Kenyatta’s ultimatum to have Omamo appointed to the NSSF board expired on Wednesday, complicating the six month long impasse that has stalled meetings at the pension fund following a January court order.
Cotu SG Atwoli went to court last December accusing CS Chelugui of leaving out one of his two nominees when the NSSF board of trustees was gazetted on October 28.
Atwoli who enjoys backing of the President Kenyatta has raised complains on the Labour CS appointing Isaac Okello, but leaving out Ms Rose Omamo — the secretary-general of Amalgamated Workers Union — who also sits on the executive committee of the umbrella workers’ union.
He forwarded the two names on August 12 as the term of the previous directors, including Mr Atwoli, was expiring in September.
“We are handling the matter of the presidential order to ensure we gazette a staff of Cotu to the NSSF board. We have a problem, we don’t want to supervise Cotu or FKE [Federation of Kenya Employers] but they must meet minimum requirements,” PS Tum told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
The Labour PS appeared before the PAC to respond to audit queries on the financial statements of Labour ministry for the year 2020/21.
He clarified that NSSF trustees whose appointments were gazetted met the minimum requirements but they will also gazette unqualified Omamo because it was a presidential directive.
While directing CS Chelagui to appoint the second Cotu nominee, the president stressed that workers must be allowed to oversight their money on the board of the NSSF, whose assets amounted to Sh290.3 billion last December.
According to NSSF Act, the trustees are to hold office for a term of three years and are eligible for re-appointment for one final term but can also be removed by Labour CS for various reasons.
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