Bomet Woman Representative Linet Chepkorir alias Toto has been sued at the Employment and Labor Relations Court in Nairobi.
The first-time lawmaker who rose to fame after trouncing veterans to clinch the Woman Rep seat was taken to court by two Bomet residents accusing her of nepotism.
According to the suit filed by Collins Barno and Stanley Kiprotich, Toto was accused of favoring her immediate family members when it came to job opportunities in her office.
When making their filing, the duo revealed that 6 out of 15 members of staff hired by the first-term Member of Parliament are relatives.
Complaining about the appointments, Barno and Kiprotich argued that she did not adhere to the tenets of the constitution that require transparency, merit, and integrity when making appointments.
The appointments also went against the constitutional requirement of the two-third gender rule according to the petitioners.
“While employing her family members she also ignored gender principle which is since there are only three women out of fifteen staff members,” the court papers stated in part.
Furthermore, the complainants also told the court that Linet was using her relatives to fleece county resources.
“The six relatives are being paid Ksh612,000 out of Ksh811,000 allocated for staff salaries,” the Labour Court was told.
The six alleged family members occupy the following positions; County manager office of woman representative, deputy manager, county coordinator, field officer, communications officer, and medical personnel.
The petitioners asked the court to quash the appointments.
“Unless the said appointments are quashed by an order of the court, it will set a bad precedent in the country, where public institutions and appointments will be made unlawfully and irregularly,” they argued.
This comes just a day after the Bomet Woman Rep caused a stir after she told off Azimio Leader Raila Odinga over his incessant call for demonstrations against the Kenya Kwanza government.
“Raila Odinga started demonstrations before I was born and it is high time he called off those rallies as they are not beneficial to the country,” she remarked.
Source: kENYANS.CO.KE