Three former Garissa County Executives (CECs) are set to sell the county assets to compensate themselves Kshs53 million court award.
This is after the three, Idriss Mukhtar, Salah Yakub and Mukhtar Bulale, successfully petitioned their wrongful termination.
The court allowed the petitioners to attach these assets to enforce the award after the Controller of Budget told the court that judgments against county governments can be enforced just like those against other entities.
In the Controllers advisory, the court was informed that attachment of a county’s properties and committal to civil jail of specific officials is possible since they are not a charge on the county fund.
"Judgment debts do not qualify as a charge on the County Revenue Fund it would be advisable for the petitioners to execute it in the normal manner.
"This includes committal to civil jail of the relevant accounting officer or having the court issue a garnishee order on the operational accounts of the county government," Selina Amsugut Iseme, the director legal services in the office of the Controller of Budget stated.
Since the Garissa Appropriation Bill, 2018, did not specify on the settlement of judgment debts, the County Treasury is tasked with distributing the debts to different departments for utilisation.
The Employment and Labour Relations court awarded them the amount for wrongful termination of their contract by the former governor, Nathif Jama.
Mukhtar, a former finance CEC is admitted in an Indian hospital following a shooting incident in Nairobi’s Kileleshwa Estate on August 19 that left him in a coma.
He had been challenging the authenticity of Garissa Governor Ali Korane’s Master’s degree although the County boss distanced himself from the shooting incident.
