• The ruling was made by the Employment and Labour Relations court sitting in Nyeri town on Tuesday.
• Githinji lodged a case in the court claiming his salary was unfairly stopped since June 2023 for unspecified reasons.
Image: FILE
The County Government of Embu has been ordered to pay it’s county attorney Jeremiah Githinji delayed three months’ salary by September 30, 2023, or risk being held in contempt of court.
The ruling was made by the Employment and Labour Relations court sitting in Nyeri town on Tuesday.
Githinji lodged a case in the court claiming his salary was unfairly stopped since June 2023 for unspecified reasons.
Justice Onesmus Makau in his ruling ordered the County Public Service Board and the County Government of Embu, cited as respondents in the petition filed in August, to comply with the order and pay Githinji full salary not remitted for the months of June, July and August.
"If the same is not paid, the respondent will have no audience in this matter before this court or any other pending suit until the content is urged," Justice Makau ruled.
He set October 12, 2023 as the hearing date of the case where the county attorney sued the county government for termination of his salary.
Githinji who is serving the third of his six-year contract sought legal redress following failed attempts to internally resolve the matter.
County attorney's serve a maximum of six years just like the attorney general.
Before joining the county government of Embu, Githinji had served as the legal advisor to the first Governor of Kirinyaga, Joseph Ndathi.
His troubles in Embu county appear to be in keeping with a trend where new county administrations tend to edge out officials hired under previous regimes.
It is only recently that the Court of Appeal reversed a decision by an Employment and Labour Relations court two years earlier, to tie the tenure of county attorneys to the term of a governor, and declared that the attorneys serve their full six year contracts regardless of the transition in county administration.
The appellate court made the determination following a petition filed in Malindi against the then Kilifi Governor Amason Kingi.
Court directed the county attorney Michelle Bibi Fondo to sign a new contract following a transition after the enactment of County Attorney Act, 2020.