KNUT Secretary General Wilson Sossion and KUPPET chairman Omboko Milemba have been directed to vacate their positions as union officials with immediate effect.
In a gazette notice on Wednesday, Labour CS Phyllis Kandie said the two are among trade union officials who must leave office as they are now state officials by way of nomination and election to Parliament respectively.
Sossion was nominated to Parliament by ODM party while Milemba won the Emuhaya MP seat in the August 8 general election.
“This notification to vacate office applies to all trade union officials holding either nominated or elective positions in any county assembly or Parliament,” Kandie said
Article 77 of the constitution restricts full time state officers from holding alternative positions of gainful employment.
The gazette notice also affects Union of Kenya Civil Servants secretary general Tom Odege who was elected MP for Nyatike constituency.
Others are Bungoma woman representative Catherine Wambilianga, Bomet Central MP Ronald Tonui (KUPPET Executive Secretary, Bomet Branch) and Richard Cheserem.
Florence Bore, John Mwamusi, Mulei Mwalowa, Stanley Kiptis and Edward Kahiga have also been ordered to vacate their respective union positions.
On November 13, KNUT chairman Mudzo Nzili defied a directive from Sossion to go on a mandatory six-month leave pending his retirement in May.
Nzili argued that the directive was null and void as Sossion was not an official of the giant teachers’ union owing to his new position as a nominated MP.
