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Kenya

Former KR worker wants AGM blocked

NAIROBI September 3 – A former Kenya Railways Corporation employee on Wednesday moved to the High court to block an Annual General Meeting of the corporation’s Staff Retirement Benefit Scheme.

Robinson Karuri Muchiri is aggrieved that the Board of Trustees had convened the meeting, which is set for next month, without his authority yet he is a beneficiary of the scheme.

"The defendant (the board of trustees) has without proper notice to the pensioners called an Annual General Meeting in October at which they may deliberate on the resolutions to the detriment of the pensioners," Muchiri said in his suit papers.

Muchiri claimed that when the scheme was established, Kenya Railways had accumulated a liability of Sh12.8 billion owed to pensioners who are now the proper beneficiaries of the scheme.

He avers that the corporation identified and transferred 23 assets valued at Sh12.4 billion among them the Makongeni and Muthurwa estates to the scheme, which the Trust was appointed to govern.

The pensioner has accused the board of mismanagement and embezzlement of funds claiming that no accounts of the total rent collected from all the leased properties had been given.

He alleges that there have been dubious methods of collecting rent in Muthurwa and Makongeni estates involving cartels and that some of the houses were allocated to ‘mercenaries’ of the administrators on whose behalf they collect rent.

He insists that there has been no AGM called since the inception of the scheme, yet part of Muthurwa estate has already been sold to Nairobi City Council (NCC) at a reported sum of Sh650 million which had not been disclosed.

He also claimed that no monthly records of benefits paid and the outstanding pension payable to the members had been kept and that no receipts or any other records are issued wherever payments are made.

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"The Trustees have withheld payment of periodic and lump sum pensions to the detriment of members thus causing them mental and physical anguish," the affidavit reads in part.

The Board of Trustees in question was reportedly appointed in 2001 and reappointed in 2005.  It has planned the controversial AGM for October 8, this year without proper notice to all the pensioners who are the entitled as beneficiaries.

"I fear that unless restrained, resolutions that are detrimental to the rights of the pensioners as beneficiaries may be passed," Muchiri claims.

Other properties listed in the plaint papers included un-surveyed land in Ngara, numerous plots on Ngong Road, Hurlingam, Kindaruma Road, Matumabato and the Nairobi Railways Club.

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