Bomet County Woman Representative Linet Toto is in trouble after two residents of the county dragged her to court over allegation that she hired 6 members of her immediate family at her official county office.

The two petitioners namely Collins Barno and Stanley Kiprotich Bii filed a petition at the Employment and Labour Relations Court in Nairobi claiming Toto disregarded Constitutional requirements such as the gender principle, transparency, fairness competition, integrity and merit among others.

According to Barno and Bii, 6 of the 15 members of Toto’s staff are her immediate family members.

“While appointing the six persons, Ms Chepkorir also totally ignored the gender principle which is a requirement in public appointments as the dictates of the Constitution. There are only three women out of the 15 staff she has employed in her office,” the petitioners claimed.

They also alleged the six relatives of Toto’s whom they did not disclose the nature of their relations to the legislator cumulatively receive Sh612,000 monthly which is 75 per cent of the Sh811,000 set aside for the payment of salaries the Woman Rep’s office

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Bii and Barnno listed six names including Bett Kipkirui (county manager, office of woman representative), Dominic Mutai (deputy manager), Sheila Chepng’eno (county coordinator), Josephat Kiplangat (field officer), Pius Kiplangat (communications officer) and Emmanuel Kipkorir (media personnel) as the persons in the questionable appointment.

The petitioners noted if the court does not quash the alleged appointments, a bad precedent will be set in the country.

“Unless the said appointments are quashed by an order of the court, it will set a bad precedent in the country, where public institutions and appointments will be made unlawfully and irregularly on the basis of partisan consideration instead of strict compliance with the legal requirements,” they said.

They also raised the question of integrity among the members appointed in the Bomet County Women Rep’s office as the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission did not clear them to serve as public officers.

“Some of the appointed support staffs of Bomet County women Representative have serious integrity issues and are not fit to serve as public officers. They were not cleared by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) before appointment as required by law,” they said.

Bii and Barno appealed to the court to order a fresh and constitutional recruitment exercise for her office’s support staff.

“We urge the court to issue an order directing Ms Chepkorir and Parliamentary Service Commission to recruit their support staff afresh following the guildlines issued by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission and strictly in accordance with the law,” the petitioners prayed.