Nyambane & another v Kenya County Government Workers Union & 3 others (Petition E013, E014 & E015 of 2024 (Consolidated)) [2025] KEELRC 970 (KLR)
The bottom line
#The Employment and Labour Relations Court in Nakuru dismissed all three petitions, confirming the union's CBA with the Nakuru water company is valid and enforceable.
What this practically means
#Executive summary
#Key legal issues
#Constitutionality of the proposed meeting between the Union and the Employer
The meeting was not unconstitutional; it was a call for social dialogue, consistent with Section 56 of the Labour Relations Act and clause 2[j] of the Recognition Agreement
The Union had an executed Recognition Agreement granting reasonable access to the workplace, and its General Secretary duly made a prior written request. No constitutional right of any petitioner was infringed by a mere letter proposing a meeting. The petitioners' recourse lay in the Labour Relations Act and the Recognition Agreement, not the Constitution; invoking the Bill of Rights for such a purpose amounts to its trivialization.
Effect of the Ruling in Nairobi E&LRC CBA No. 34 of 2020 on KCGWU's capacity
The Ruling did not deprive KCGWU of capacity to represent Nakuru water company employees; it was a decision in personam confined to registration of a CBA between different parties
The Nairobi dispute involved Nairobi Water and Sewerage Company, a different employer, and did not deal with Nakuru's Recognition Agreement or CBA. Relevance declarations do not displace Section 54's simple-majority requirement. KCGWU holds 90% of unionisable employees at Nakuru, uncontested, and no employees are shown to have resigned. Trade union monopoly based on 'one industry, one union' belongs to the pre-2010 past.
Whether the 2021 CBA was executed per incuriam and is a nullity
The CBA is formally and substantively valid, negotiated and registered by legally capacitated parties; per incuriam does not apply to contracts, and the Court lacks mandate to revisit concluded CBAs
Recognition granted in 2014 under Section 54 founded the Union's capacity under Sections 54(1) and 57(1). No objection was raised at registration (RCA No. 157 of 2021) and the CBA was partly implemented. The Court of Appeal held the Court cannot interfere suo motu with registered CBAs. The SRC consultation argument was diversionary; the Court would have declined registration had the CBA suffered formal or substantive infirmities.
Salary increment conditions under clause 4.0 of the CBA
The company failed to prove it did not achieve the water billing targets; it must implement the CBA in full, failing which the Union may lawfully call industrial action
Clause 4.0 pegged the 2nd and 3rd year increments on water billing targets of Kshs 100 million and Kshs 110 million. The company paid Kshs 8,000 in year one and only half in year two, nothing in year three. It exhibited no water revenue reports. If unable to comply, the recourse was social dialogue to restructure timelines, not repudiation. A blanket order prohibiting the strike was unwarranted.
Fitness of Duba and Ndunda to hold Union office
They are validly elected officials; an employer has no right to seek their removal
They were elected under the Union constitution in accordance with Section 34 of the Labour Relations Act, registered by the Registrar of Trade Unions, and not disqualified under Section 31. Under Section 8 of the Act and ILO Convention No. 87, unions freely elect their representatives free of interference. Whether they remain fit is for the union members at the ballot.
Validity of the 2007 Recognition Agreement held by NUWASE/KUWSE
The 2007 Agreement is archival and lost validity once the company entered a relationship with KCGWU in 2014; it does not annul the later Recognition Agreement
The 2007 Agreement produced no CBA for decades and KUWSE showed no current majority. No objection was raised when KCGWU sought recognition in 2014. Once recognition passed to KCGWU, the presumption was that NUWASE had lost its majority. The law does not bar multiple Recognition Agreements, but the most recent, supported by a majority and a partly implemented CBA, prevails.
Legal principles established
#- A judicial declaration that a union is the most relevant in a sector does not grant it an automatic sole collective bargaining agency right; it must still establish and sustain a simple majority at the workplace under Section 54 of the Labour Relations Act
- The Employment and Labour Relations Court lacks mandate to revisit and interfere with concluded and duly registered CBAs
- There is a presumption that an existing Recognition Agreement is valid, rebuttable only by cogent evidence such as resignation of employees from the recognized union
- The doctrine of constitutional avoidance bars invocation of the Bill of Rights where a remedy exists under other legislation
Court orders
#- 1.The Consolidated Petitions are declined
- 2.Costs shall be paid to Kenya County Government Workers Union, in Petition E013 of 2024 by the Petitioner Zephania Ochieng' Nyambane
- 3.Costs shall be paid to the Kenya County Government Workers Union, Hon. Roba S. Duba and John Ndunda, in Petition No. E014 of 2024, by Nakuru Water and Sanitation Services Company Limited
- 4.Costs shall be paid to the Kenya County Government Workers Union, in Petition No. E015 of 2024, by the Petitioner Kenya Union of Water and Sewerage Employees
- Jurisdiction invoked
- Article 41 of the Constitution; Labour Relations Act, 2007 (Employment and Labour Relations Court jurisdiction over trade union representation and CBA registration disputes)
Key timeline
#Practical implications
#Frequently asked questions
#Cite this brief
#Cite this brief
Caselaw, "Nyambane & another v Kenya County Government Workers Union & 3 others (Petition E013, E014 & E015 of 2024 (Consolidated)) [2025] KEELRC 970 (KLR)", Case Analysis (2025). Consolidated Petitions Nos. E013, E014 and E015 of 2024. Source: https://new.kenyalaw.org/akn/ke/judgment/keelrc/2025/970/eng@2025-03-28
Suggested citation format for research notes or client memos. Always verify the original judgment before relying on any point.