Photo: Ms Valentine Wanjiru (right) and Ephantus Safari Kamau directors of performers rights society (left)
A Kenyan musician has moved to court seeking to stop Performers Rights Society of Kenya from removing her from the board of directors.
In a case under certificate of urgency, Ms Valentine Wanjiru Kamau said she was elected by an overwhelming majority of PRISK members to the board on September 20, 2018.
After joining the board she allegedly discovered a lot of irregularities and financial impropriety perpetrated by the board members. They raised issues concerning irregularities and concealment of the loss of Sh3.4 million through a breached procurement.
She said the complaints were ignored, forcing her to move to the Kenya Copyright Board (KECOBO), the regulator to intervene and investigate the concerns.
Ms Kamau escalated the matter and reported to the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI).
But when a section of the board got wind of it, they instigated her removal. On June 26, the board barred her from attending any of its meetings and her duties were assigned to other persons.
In a special meeting convened on June 23, a barrage of accusations were leveled against her and a notice for her removal was issued. She was given 24 hours to respond to the allegations.
She requested the board to be given sufficient time and also to be supplied with the particulars of the allegations but the request was declined.
Valentine moved to court saying unless the court intervened, the board will proceed and discuss her removal in a meeting scheduled for July 28.
“The claimant is also apprehensive that the board will remove her without involving or informing the members who voted her into the board at the annual general meeting,” she said through her lawyer Perpetual Waitere.
She said the board has already shown bad faith by refusing to pay her allowance and refused to provide her with the monthly directors’ statement despite the fact that she is still a director.
Update: Upon seeking more information from the claimant, Ms Kamau was reluctant to disclose more on the matter but clarified that she has since been removed from the board after the courts failed to give her exparte orders to stop the Board hearing from taking place.
The next hearing will be on the 27th of August 2020 before Judge Byram Ongaya
Source: KENYAGIST.COM