The infighting at the giant Dock Workers Union has escalated after the union’s embattled chairman Mohamed Sheria successfully withdrew the union from a petition filed by Simon Sang to stop privatisation of port’s second container terminal.
The Sheria group told the court that Sang had filed the petition opposing second container terminal privatisation without consulting other members.
Embattled DWU chairman Mohamed Sheria addressing the press
Lawyer Oduori Siminyu, who appeared on behalf of the DWU board, said Sang acted on his own behalf without the approval of the board. At the time, Sang was out of the country on a bench-marking trip in Dubai.
“According to the constitution of the DWU, there should be an executive meeting of the board before filing any matter in court. There was no such meeting, and therefore, this was a unilateral decision by Sang,” the lawyer said.
He said after the DWU board realised that a petition had been filed in court, they appointed him as their lawyer to apply for the matter to be discontinued.
“That was the personal decision of the secretary. The union wants to be removed from the proceedings because they never filed the case,” Siminyu said. Justice Patrick Otieno allowed the union to pullout of the case.
The pullout by DWU and a human rights outfit, Muhuri was meant to collapse the case but the judge ruled that the withdrawal by the two major petitioners was inconsequential since Taireni Association of Mijikenda, the third petitioner is still going on with the matter.
Subsequently, Justice Otieno forwarded the case file to Chief Justice David Maraga to constitute a bench to hear the petition. He said the petition raises weighty constitutional issues of public interest which needs to be looked into.
Taireni is seeking a declaration that the MoU between the government and Mediterranean Shipping Company is illegal and unconstitutional.
The association argues that the purported privatisation of the operation and management of CT2 to a private entity is contrary to the principles of sovereignty as the port is a national asset.
The association further argues that the MoU for the transfer of part of the terminal to a private entity is not viable and the implementation will be detrimental to Kenyans.
