Lumumba named law school boss

Former anti-corruption commission boss PLO Lumumba has taken over as the new director of Kenya School of Law (KSL).

Prof Lumumba (below), who was recruited competitively, comes into office following recommendations of Efficiency Monitoring Unit that the position be declared vacant and filled by the KSL board.

It was also a consequence of the enactment of two laws which separated the KSL and the Council of Legal Education (CLE), which were initially headed by Prof Wanyama Kulundu-Bitonye.

This means that Prof Kulundu-Bitonye will now only hold the position of secretary of CLE.

Yesterday, Prof Lumumba was in his new office at the school in Karen.

“I have been in office since March 17. Since I am still new, I am trying to learn how the school operates,” he said by phone.

He has served as the director of the thebn Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) from September 2010 to August 2011, before it was renamed Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC).

The recruitment of Dr Lumumba comes in the wake of an Efficiency Monitoring Unit (EMU) report recommended to the council of the CLE and the KSL board to advertise for the positions, claiming that Prof Kulundu-Bitonye was in office illegally.

Prof Kulundu-Bitonye, the report released this month alleged, misguided the KSL board of directors and the CLE over the renewal of his contract and increment of his salary since July 2006.

“The Council and Board should hold Prof Kulundu-Bitonye culpable of abuse of office for misguiding the Council and the Board, particularly on matters relating to staff recruitment and renewal of his contract and selective increment of salaries, contrary to Section 46 of  the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act and Section 13 of the Leadership and Integrity Act,” the report said in part.

But Prof Kulundu-Bitonye denied the claims of abuse of office by the EMU, describing the latest report from the unit domiciled at the Office of the Deputy President as the “most incompetent and unprofessional”.

“I have seen the report and I can say that it is the most the most incompetent and unprofessional I have ever see. We were not given chance to reply but you will be shocked by the answers we have for the allegations,” he said.

It alleges that Prof Kulundu-Bitonye has held two positions, as boss of the KSL and CLE even after  the enactment of the KSL Act and the Legal Education Act which delinked the two institutions.

The report refers to a letter by Attorney General Githu Muigai in September 2013 advising the CLE to named its own secretary since it was an independent institution.

“From this letter, the team (CLE council) deduced that during this meeting, the team agreed that the Council needed to recruit a secretary. Therefore, Prof Kulundu-Bitonye could not have had a contract as the Secretary to the Council, which the Council then later on alleged to extend,” the report says.

The report alleges that KSL board and CLE council to terminate the contract of Prof kulundu-Bitonye at the two institutions and advertise the positions. In the meantime, they recommend the KSL and CLE to fill the positions on acting capacity pending the recruitment.

“The Council and board should, with immediate effect, declare the positions of Director of KSL and Secretary of CLE vacant and ensure that these positions are subjected to competitive recruitment process,” it says