But This is William Ruto and It could Get Worse.
Attorney General (AG) Justin Muturi has filed a notice of appeal on Monday’s High Court ruling that invalidated the appointment of 50 Chief Administrative Secretaries (CASs) by President William Ruto.
The matter, which has been certified urgent, will be mentioned on Wednesday at 9am before Lady Justice Mugure Thande.
In the Monday ruling, judges Kanyi Kimondo, Hedwig Ong’udi and Aleem Visram, ruled that public participation in the creation of the CAS posts was only conducted for 23 occupants and the creation of the additional 27 occupants did not adhere to the constitutional requirement of public participation.
While noting that the position was abolished last year, the court said; “Once that office was abolished on 21 September 2022, the newly-created office and complement of 23 office holders could no longer benefit from that stay.”
“The newly-created office and fresh complement of 50 had to comply with the constitution and the criteria set out earlier in Okiyah’s case in order to be lawfully established. They did not comply. The entire complement of 50 CASs is therefore unconstitutional,” the court ruled.
Let the media reports speak for themselves.
Let’s meet at the Court of Appeal – Ruto CASs say
The CASs said they will be seeking an interpretation on the verdict issued by the High Court judges.
Chief Administrative Secretaries (CAS) who on Monday suffered a blow after the High Court ruled as unconstitutional their appointments have vowed to challenge the decision.
Through their lawyer Adrian Kamotho, the CASs said they will be seeking an interpretation at the Court of Appeal on the verdict issued by the judges.
Kamotho has said the ruling by the three-judge bench has created jurisprudential chaos because there exists another ruling which okayed the creation of the position.
“The same Law Society of Kenya (LSK) which moved to court to seek same orders yet the court had already pronounced itself on the matter,” he told the Star.
As it is currently, Kamotho said, the President is in a peculiar situation as a result of the two conflicting rulings.
“We have two rulings-one that says he can appoint the CASs and another one that says he cannot appoint…that is why we are convinced that we need an interpretation on this matter,” he said.
Early this year, the Employment and Labour Relations Court declared the establishment of the office of Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS) as constitutional.
In a judgment delivered by Justice Monicah Mbaru, the court dismissed a petition by LSK which challenged the establishment of the position.
Mbaru ruled that the decision of the Public Service Commission (PSC) to create the position is lawful.
“Public Service Commission followed due process in initiating recruitment of CASs. I, therefore, dismiss the petition by LSK,” Mbaru ruled.
This paved way for the Commission to proceed with plans of inviting applicants for the job vacancies.
The lawyer also took a swipe at the judges over what he said issued orders that were not sought by the petitioners.
“The High Court decided to craft its own rules and dish out orders. The two lower courts cannot overrule the other but what it has done is the contrary,” he added.
Meanwhile, Bomet Senator Hillary Sigei has thrown his weight behind the matter saying the Kenya Kwanza administration respects the High Court ruling even as he maintains they are going to appeal.
“Being a government that also pronounced itself a respecter of the rule of law, it will respect this decision…it will, however, exercise its right to appeal the decision to the court of appeal,” Sigei said.
Sigei has not stated when they will be filing a notice in the court only saying “the work is already underway”.
His sentiment comes moments after his Nandi counterpart Samson Cherargei questioned the inconsistency in the ruling in a clear indication that President William Ruto is keen on having the appointees in office.
Cherargei said a previous ruling had allowed the government to appoint 23 CASs hence wondered why the judges declared it unconstitutional.
In Monday’s ruling, Justices Kanyi Kimondo and Ali Visram said it was not the intention of the framers of the constitution to have 50 CASs deputise 22 Cabinet Secretaries.
Justice Hedwig Ong’udi however disagreed with the decision terming the decision unconstitutional.
The bench agreed with the petitioners in the case that there was no public participation regarding the additional 27 posts.
“The sequence and procedure leading to the additional 27 posts did not adhere to public participation. The process didn’t meet the threshold,” the bench ruled.
Meanwhile, Ruto had his bunch of clowns at State House again.
One thing is sure about this sad group of people. They are not doing anything for Ruto, they are not doing anything for their constituents whom they don’t even recognize as voters and they are certainly not doing anything for Kenya. They are triple losers and they want Ruto to feed them from both ends. That is all.
The real question is, how did ODM get such complete idiots elected as MPs?
What happened to the likes of former Kibra MP Imran Okoth who could do wonders like this for their constituents.
Let me say one thing for Ruto’s sake. William Ruto has nobody, nada, not a single person in his regime who can advise him. They worship him starting with his little boy called Rigathi Gachagua. When they see Ruto they see God in front of them. They feel so lucky and so grateful that Ruto wants them to sing for him.
When Kibaki came to power in 2002 he had Raila both as friend, adviser and someone who could tell him outright if he was doing something wrong.
That is how Kibaki’s 2005 cooked up new constitution for Kenya was bombed out in the ballot box and that is how we ended up with the 2010 Constitution for country. There were people who could stand up to Kibaki and force him to do the right thing for the country and they were in the same government with him.
Ruto has clowns groveling around him and kissing his ass. That never works. Watch. It is not going to be pretty for anybody including William Ruto.
