Judges begin hearing appeal on tutors, pay hike ruling

Five Court of Appeal judges finally got down to hearing an appeal on the judgment by Employment and Labour Relations Court that awarded teachers 50 to 60 per cent pay increase.
Lawyer Fred Ngatia for Teachers Service Commission laid three key grounds that he asked the judges to consider and set aside the judgment by Judge Nduma Nderi.
He asked the five-judge-Bench to consider that there was no voluntary consent entered between the parties in the High Court and therefore the judgment was defective. He also asked the judges to consider that as per the law the court cannot act as a conciliator and that can only be conducted by a conciliator outside the Judiciary.
He asked them to consider that the prayers sought in the petition were at variance with the final orders of the court. False start The hearing commenced after a false start last week and yesterday morning when Knut had painted the court as compromised.
Yesterday’s hearing started with an application to have three of the five judges disqualify themselves on grounds that they would be partisan.
Lawyer Ahmednasir Abdulahi for Knut said they had learned from “reliable sources” that the judges had received instructions from Court of Appeal President Justice Kihara Kariuki, who in turn allegedly had instructions from State House, on how the case should be handled. Hearing continues today.