Fresh trouble brews at Nairobi Water Company – Weekly Citizen

A serious governance storm is brewing at Nairobi Water Company in the wake of direct abuse of basic governance guidelines, selective application of the human resource manual and policies and deliberate noncompliance to statutory industrial relations regulations coupled with failure of ensuing due diligence in handling industrial relation matters.
These are said to be factors that are slowly but devastatingly grounding the company to a halt. Corruption has become the order of the day as discontent by employees of the company take centrestage.
Sources within the National Union of Water and Sewerage Employees indicate there is a syndicate among the top management of the company, hellbent on ripping off finances of the water service provider by exploiting on the company’s internal weak systems.
This scheme is reinforced by a decision designed to fail litigation if presented in court hence leading to exorbitant court awards against the company. It is feared that if this trend is left to continue, then this financially ailing critical organisation will soon be facing the auctioneer’s hammer besides layoffs of staff and compromised services.
The scramble for the company’s financial resource has been well planned, gradual and intense with every trick in the book being employed by the beneficiaries.

The process leading to the recent reinstatement of the former dismissed commercial director in the company Stephen Mbugua, whose contract alongside other two, financial and human resources director respectively were terminated on nonperformance grounds by the previous board of directors of the company is one of such schemes.
Upon receiving the termination of the contract in 2017, Mbugua contested the board’s decision in the Employment and Labour Relations Court, which was determined in his favour on November 13 of the same year. On November 17 the company acting on the direction of the court, wrote to the engineer notifying him of his reinstatement.
He, however, failed to report back to work. Our investigations established that on or about the same time, Mbugua had secured another job with the county government of Nyandarua as chief executive officer in charge of transport, energy and public works, which is why, presumably he declined to take up his position at the water company as per the court order. After working in this prestigious county portfolio with litany of complaints on nonperformance on his back, it had become clear that, the renewal of his contract was an uphill task. Sensing danger of his survival at the county, the 54-year-old engineer rushed to court again. Notwithstanding the reinstatement letter the company had given him, this time round the engineer accused the managing director of turning him away when he attempted to report to duty.
However, the substance in question is not the reinstatement of the engineer, what is astonishing is the terms that graces his grand re-entry into his office. According to the letter of reinstatement in our possession signed by the managing director, “the company hereby reinstates you to employment with all back salaries, benefits and allowances”. This decision was undertaken with full understanding and knowledge of the employer that the claimant was in gainful employment in a public institution which technically amounts to drawing two salaries from the government concurrently. This has not gone down well with the chairman of Nuwase Philemon Atik. Atik says that whereas the company has responded ruthlessly to cases of similar nature affecting unionisable employees and even rushes to court to file appeals against such rulings, it has treated cases of senior managers with leniency. “It is clear that these cases have vested interests. There exists a trend that must be stopped,” the chairman says.
Atik who was accompanied by the Nairobi branch secretary Rufus Ososti listed the loss of millions of shillings towards settlement of court awards to a number of directors who have left the company. “If the company can spend a whopping Sh 41 million as legal fee to fight a union what else is left other than speculating the obvious, the duo posed. This is in reference to illegal fee note billed to the legal company of Mbugua, Atundo and Macharia Advocates who appeared for the company in a matter against Nuwase.
This is an issue that has since been forwarded to Ethics and Anti- Corruption Commission for action.
The unionist vowed that they will not stand by as few disgruntled interests from within and out of the company are out to cannibalise and siphon the financial bloodline of the company dry.
Meanwhile, as the engineer seats pretty in the office, he seems oblivious of the challenges before him. One issue that might haunt his tenure at the helm of the commercial directorate of the company is the internal audit queries in regard to his participation, recommendation and approval of purchase of 37,500 pieces of anti-fraud gate valves at a cost of Sh59.5 million.
The lockable gate valves are meant to aid the disconnection and reconnection process. According to the internal audit report of May 2017, the company is yet to acquire the lockable pins that are meant to ensure a meter once disconnected cannot be reconnected by a customer illegally.
The wonder is why the company could hurriedly procure, receive goods and pay the supplier without this important accessory which renders the intended operation futile. Further, the long time it has taken for delivery of this lockable pin puts the integrity of the engineer in uncertainty since he was in office when the whole procurement process was initiated and finalised.
Secondly, the consequences of a false allegation can be severe and even lethal. After basing his argument in court under oath on falsified allegations against the MD that he was chased away from office when he turned up to resume duty as per the court orders, the engineer breached on the cardinal principle of trust which implies his management decisions may not be dependable.
How he will relate with his fellow directors, managers and particularly staff from the company’s legal unit from where he sits prejudices his occupancy of the office.
However, as the union argues, the focus is on the selective application of the human resource manual and the omission and commission thereof. From a copy of reinstatement letter date November 17 2017, addressed to the engineer, his reinstatement is not in question as per the court order. The patient question is what action the management took when the engineer refused to resume duty.
Document in our possession indicate that, even after being advised by the external legal team which appeared for the company on the matter, Triple OK Law Advocates, for the company to institute disciplinary action, the company for reasons beyond normal understanding and rightful thinking, chose to intentionally ignore this legal advice and arrogantly flouted, the human resource manual.
Such gross negligence may likely cost the company a lot of money going by the presidency even as Nuwase moves to court to seek legal interpretation of the matter,
As this happens, the staff at the company is shocked by greed being exhibited by the top managers of the company.
Information reaching us indicates that, all top directors draw huge allowances to attend to trivial meetings and workshops they purposely organise mainly outside Nairobi.
Perhaps to avoid being questioned by the Nairobi county government, a number of MCAs are usually folded in for participation at the expense of the company. This gluttonous appetite, according to our source, has witnessed high absence from office by directors as most of them appear for less than a week per month in the office as they goldmine on external international and local tours.
In our next issue, we shall uncover in detail how the company’s directors and top managers have exploited on travel allowances as a conduit of siphoning company’s revenue, the audit issues raised on projects financed by the World Bank, weak systems that has left the company vulnerable to revenue loss, nepotism and tribalism at the company.