An Investigation report on alleged abuse of power by the Managing Director of Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company

Abstract

Two complaints were received on 17th and 18th February, 2020 from Simon Itubo, an employee of Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company (NCWSC) alleging abuse of power by the Managing Director NCWSC for facilitating and aiding industrial facilities/factories to illegally discharge dangerous chemicals into public sewer and verbally intimidating him in his execution of enforcement roles and subsequently unfairly transferring him. Pursuant to section 8 of the CAJ Act, the Commission carried out investigations to ascertain the veracity of the aforementioned allegations. The Commission notified the MD of NCSWC of its decision to undertake the investigation. A team of investigators visited NCSWC head offices, conducted interviews with staff of NCSWC and recovered documents relevant to the issues under investigation. It was established that the transfer of the complainant to Ngethu treatment plant was unfair and done in bad faith but this was remedied by his second transfer to Kabete Treatment plant following an appeal the complainant lodged. The allegations that there were no investigative functions at the Kabete plant was unfounded It was also noted that, the allegation that the MD had verbally intimidated the officers taking enforcement action against industries considered to be noncompliant was founded. Investigations revealed several incidents that demonstrated that the MD had verbally intimidated the security team whenever they undertook necessary action against industries considered to be noncompliant by the Security Department. Pursuant to Section 36 of the CAJ Act, the Commission wrote to the MD on 8th November 2021 to accord him an opportunity to respond to the findings and recommendations against him. The MD made his representations through a letter dated 19th November 2021, denying the adverse findings against him. In light of these findings, the Commission recommends, inter-alia, that NCWSC to consider assigning the Complainant to a duty station with roles/responsibilities that are in line with his contract, in order to efficiently utilize his expertise as an investigations officer; that the Company should develop a transfer policy to come up with clear procedures for the transfers of employees in order to avoid abuse and to report on this to CAJ within one (1) year of this Report; NCWSC Board of Directors to further investigate the allegations of verbal intimidations by the MD on the complainant or any other officer and the existing communication breakdown between the MD’s office and the security department with a view of resolving it for a smooth running of business and promptly report back to the Commission the steps taken to rectify the situation within three months.