Lawyer demands Sh20 million from doctor over multiple jobs claims
National
By
Kamau Muthoni
| Feb 08, 2024
Council for Legal Education (CLE) acting CEO Jeniffer Gitiri on Thursday asked the court to compel Dr Magare Gikenyi to pay her Sh20 million for alleged falsehoods.
Gikenyi filed a case claiming that Ms Gitiri was holding multiple government jobs.
He claimed that she is the deputy legal director at Assets Recovery Agency(ARA), corporation secretary at the same agency and acting secretary at CLE.
The doctor further claimed that the lawyer sits in the Kenya Law Reporting Council (KLRC), Victims Protection Agency (WPA) and Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA).
While disputing the claims, Gitiri said Gikenyi ought to pay for giving false information to the court and Kenyans.
"The above allegations are false to the knowledge of the petitioner who did not bother to verify the truth of the aforesaid entities before launching his malicious attacks on me with the collateral objective of harming my career and reputation," she said.
Gitiri said that she is currently employed as a state counsel at the Attorney General's office.
The AG then seconded her to ARA from May 1, 2022, for a period of two years. She was to work in ARA as a deputy director of legal services and corporation secretary.
Gitiri argued that the doctor split her roles at the agency in order to depict her as having two roles at the agency and earning two salaries.
She denied sitting at the Witness Protection Agency and the KLRC.
However, the lawyer admitted sitting in the KRA board but clarified that she was appointed by the AG as his alternate in the board.
"That the respondent has committed acts of perjury by willfully and knowingly giving false testimony under oath in these judicial proceedings. By knowingly deponing to false information in these proceedings, the respondent acted in a manner to subvert the cause of justice," she said.
"The respondent knowingly, intentionally and maliciously split the roles of Deputy Director and Corporation Secretary to create an impression that those are two and separate roles to which the Cross-Petitioner draws two salaries," she added.
Gitiri argued that Gikenyi created an image that she is a beneficiary of favouritism in public service.
At the same time, she said that her privacy was grossly violated as she ended up being trolled online and was also profiled for investigations by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC).
On the CLE appointment, Gitiri said that she was appointed by the AG to stand in for six months as the council's CEO and the chair had abruptly resigned.
Giriti's arguments were echoed by EACC which explained that her secondment from the AG's office had been approved by the Public Service Commission (PSC).
At the same time, the AG stated that he sits in multiple boards, including corporations.
In his response filed by the human resource director Dr Ernest Alela said that Gitiri is a Principal State Counsel, thus eligible for secondments and appointments to represent AG in boards.
He, however, stated that board members do not earn a salary as had been alleged by Gikenyi.
Alela said that owing to a high number of senior civil servants in AG's office retiring, there was no senior person who could have been appointed other than Gitiri to stand in in CLE.
WPA and KLRC filed separate responses stating that she does not sit in their boards.
Gitiri said that she sits in Living Water International's board. She argued that she does not draw any salary but instead, she gives back to society through drilling water.
The lawyer said that Gikenyi ought to have written to all the agencies he claimed she was earning a salary from for verification before he filed the court case.
Gitiri argued that the case was actuated by malice.