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Former EABC boss wants $0.18m for ‘forcible exit’

Saturday October 20 2018
eabc

Former executive director of the East African Business Council Lillian Awinja (right) and board chairman Nicholas Nesbitt (right) and the vice chairman James Kibeho at the launch of the EABC Business Excellence Awards in Nairobi on January 10, 2018. PHOTO | NMG

By NJIRAINI MUCHIRA

Lilian Awinja, who until recently was the executive director of the East African Business Council, is demanding $181,390 as compensation for being “pushed out” of the lobby by its board.

The EastAfrican has seen a letter written by her lawyer addressed to EABC board chairman Nicholas Nesbitt in which she demands compensation, threatening legal action if this demand is not met.

“My client was coerced and intimidated by your good self and some members of the board through incessant telephone calls and oral conversations … that she should submit her resignation letter, which she wrote due to undue pressure,” notes the letter by lawyer Nelson Merinyo.

He says that the labour laws in Tanzania “abhor” the ways and methods the board applied on her.

Efforts to seek a comment from Mr Nesbitt were unsuccessful as he did not answer calls or reply to text messages sent to his phone.

The board has appointed Peter Mathuki, who was a member of the East Africa Legislative Assembly between 2012 and 2017, in acting capacity in her place.

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The lobby said Mr Mathuki’s expertise and networks “will play a key role in strengthening the secretariat to advocate and support our vision of a borderless East Africa for business and investment.”

The position of executive director at EABC has been held by Kenyans over the past 15 years.

Sources say that the problems bedevilling the lobby emanate from financial challenges that have made it unable to pay creditors and remit statutory deductions. These have put it on a collision course with the Tanzania Revenue Authority, which at one point had threatened to close its offices in Arusha.

The lobby is also grappling with understaffing. It currently has nine staff, while it requires at least 22.

A report presented to the executive committee by Ms Awinja in September shows that in June 2015, EABC debts stood at $250,000 as a result of serious cashflow problems caused by members’ failure to pay annual membership fees and lack of donor support.

At least 16 members have withdrawn, citing increased fees and poor performance among their reasons while 24 have not paid membership fee for two consecutive years, prompting their suspension.

EABC started this year with a debt of $129,000 that includes statutory deductions and amounts owed to creditors. Out of the $207,000, in membership fees collected to date, $120,000 has gone towards servicing debt.

According to the document, the management has put in place measures to secure EABC’s financial sustainability, key to which is seeking funding from development partners.

This year, EABC secured $3.2 million from TradeMark East Africa for a five-year project to support public-private sector dialogue for trade and investment.

EABC sources say that control over these funds could have set in motion Ms Awinja’s exit from the organisation which she joined in 2012 before being appointed the executive director in June 2016.

EABC has also secured $351,000 from the Federation of Germany Industries and is in the process of securing $500,000 from the International Trade Centre.

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