The High Court will hear a contempt application against ousted Nairobi Hospital chairperson Barcley Onyambu and two other senior officials for allegedly proceeding with a retreat in Naivasha against a court order.
Justice Nixon Sifuna noted that Dr Onyambu alongside the chief executive officer, Felix Osano, and Gilbert Nyamweya (company secretary) were served with a court order, stopping the retreat that was held in Naivasha last week.
However, the judge said that the board of directors chose to proceed with the retreat on July 3 and 4, in defiance of the court order.
“This is exactly what the order had restrained them from doing. Any action that is done in disobedience of a court order is an illegality,” the judge said.
Last week, the court issued the order stopping the two-day retreat following a boardroom coup in which Prof Herman Manyora was appointed the new chairperson of the premier hospital to replace Dr Onyambu.
Justice Sifuna said any business or resolutions made from the meeting are illegal.
The judge, consequently struck out an application filed by a rival group, withdrawing the case filed by Dr Job Obwaka in support of Prof Manyora.
During the hearing on Wednesday, Prof Manyora said several board members attended the retreat in Naivasha including Dr Onyambu, Samson Mbuthia (vice chairperson), Dr Agnes Gachoki, Magdalene Muthoka, Valery Akinyi, Eric Okeyo, Anne Njuguna, and the company secretary Mr Nyamweya as company.
Through lawyer Ochieng Oduol, he said Dr Gachoki protested that the meeting had been stopped by the court but her pleas were allegedly ignored.
Mr Oduol added that Dr Onyambu purported to step down as the chair and his position was taken over by Dr Mbuthia, who presided over the meeting and passed the resolution appointing new lawyers and directing them to withdraw the case.
Through Dr Duncan O’Kubasu, the management said the board of directors and staff members were already in Naivasha when they were served with the court order.
Dr O’Kubasu said the programme was abandoned in its entirety and the only issue that the board considered was the court case.
He submitted that the case stopping the retreat was filed without the authority of the company and that eight out of 14 board of directors, made a resolution that he should represent the company in the matter.
The judge rejected the argument and said the decision by the board was a clear scheme to circumvent, undermine, and defeat the court order.
“I add that no craft of interpretation can conceal the defendant's disregard and disobedience of the said court order. It matters not that the suit has been defended or opposed and deemed by the defendants to be defective. Those are issues for determination later and cannot be relied upon to defy a valid court order,” said the judge.
Justice Sifuna said a court order was not a request but a command that must be respected. “Disregard for court orders not only undermines the authority of the court and the rule of the law but also a recipe for anarchy,” said the judge.
The judge directed the ousted chairman and other officials to file their responses on the contempt application and appear before him on July 17, for a hearing.
The court further directed them to appear before him physically on the said date.
