IN GOOD FAITH
CARMEL RICKARD: Courts rule, ok?
Judges in SA and Kenya alike are showing the way when it comes to stamping on officials who are inefficient at best and corrupt at worst
Feckless officials effectively stopped a project that would transform data communication in the whole of East Africa. Fortunately for investors as well as government and industry users, however, the Kenyan courts have turned out to be as determined as their SA counterparts when it comes to dealing with bloody-minded civil servants. The project involves the construction of a data centre. By way of preparation, every conceivable hurdle had been noted and cleared. All that was needed was for a local government employee to "stamp" crucial building plans that had been officially approved in October 2015. But 17 months later, when no stamped set of plans had yet been issued, the company setting up the data centre, Kooba Kenya, brought legal action under the Kenyan constitution, saying it had the right to fair administrative action. By refusing to "stamp" the crucial plans, the Mombasa county government was infringing Kooba’s rights and causing great financial loss.Kooba said the inexplica...
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