BY SAM ALFAN.
Former KCB Group company secretary Joseph Kamau Kania wants his successor put in the dock over an affidavit she filed opposing his reinstatement.
Kania says in the latest application that Bonnie Okumu should be cross-examined over the contents of her affidavit.
He says Okumu claims in an affidavit to be the KCB’s Group general counsel. However, she fails to disclose that she is the Group’s company secretary, a move he says intents to deceive the court.
“I am hereby putting her on notice that I shall seek the Court’s leave to cross-examine her,” he says.
Kania further says he is putting her on notice that he intends to invoke the provisions of Section 56 of the Advocates Act with a view to urging the Judge to find that she has misconducted herself or committed an offence as an Advocate, of swearing a false and misleading Affidavit.
The former KCB company secretary has sued the lender for illegal sacking almost three years ago. He is seeking reinstatement.
The bank wants the case handled through arbitration.
Kania says Okumu failed to disclose the fact that she simultaneously holds the substantive position of Group Company Secretary was, and a fact concealed to deceive the Court and which amounts to the offence of perjury and is punishable under the Kenyan Penal Code.
He says the court should make a full and proper inquiry as to the status of Okumu’s employment and the position(s) for which she has been employment since 2021.
Lawyer Kania further wants the court to dismiss KCB Group’s application and the petition be set down for hearing by way of oral evidence.
The former bank company secretary adds that Okumu’s affidavit sworn on 24 March 2023 she has deposed to matters of fact which are in serious contention.
“I verily believe that a clear and serious conflict of interest arises by reason of the fact that Bonnie Okumu is a “person of interest” in the Petition, as I have adversely mentioned her in the Petition as the person who replaced me as the KCB Group Company Secretary in circumstances which form the centre-stage of the dispute between me, the KCB Group and the Central Bank,” lawyer Kania told the court.
He adds that the clear and serious conflict of interest arising is demonstrated by the fact that Bonnie Okumu has falsely and knowingly deposed on her affidavit that she is “the Group General Counsel at KCB Group PLC”, without disclosing that she is at the same time (albeit illegally, unlawfully and irregularly) substantively holding the position of Group Company Secretary.
The position of Group Company Secretary, which she has deliberately concealed, is the very position that I held under my 2016-2020 Contract and for which I had been approved for a further 5-year Contract from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2025.
He adds that the fact that Okumu has been holding the position of KCB Group Company Secretary substantively, though illegally, unlawful and irregularly, is a matter of general notoriety as indicated in numerous announcements, notices and articles in the print and electronic media and, more importantly, in the KCB Group’s own official Financial Statements.
“The deposition, taken within the context other independent, material and objectively verifiable evidence, necessarily implies one or more or all of the following scenario that she is impliedly knowingly falsely misleading the Court into believing that she is the Bank’s Group General Counsel and not the group Company Secretary, when in truth she is also in fact the KCB Group Company Secretary with a view to falsely and fraudulently representing to this Honourable Court that she was not appointed to the position in contention, in respect of which my employment was unlawfully was terminated,” he says.
He continues, “I verily believe that Bonnie Okumu’s further intention is to knowingly but falsely assist the KCB Group to attempt to convince the Court that the position of Group Company Secretary ceased to exist on 31 December 2020, while in fact it did not but is now substantively occupied by her.”
He says since 2021, Okumu has simultaneously held and continues to hold both positions, but is for unexplained reasons, was unable or unwilling to own up to the fact.
“That, by necessary implication therefore, the position of Group Company Secretary has been unoccupied since 2021 and is still available to me, as I have claimed in the petition,” Kania says.
