By Isaiah Lucheli
Nairobi, Kenya: A petitioner has moved to the High Court seeking to block the Public Service Commission (PSC) from recommending Principal Secretaries for appointment.
In a petition, Albert Mulindi submits that the process of advertising, shortlisting and the interviewing candidates had flouted the Constitution’s principle of transparency and governance.
Through lawyer John Khaminwa, he averred that though the PSC had exercised its constitutional and statute mandate in recruiting the secretaries, it had violated the same law as an Executive structure had not been established.
Mulindi submitted that the PSC while shortlisting candidates for the position failed to consider currently serving Permanent Secretaries (PSs) as persons with tremendous experience especially during the transitional period.
“The commission breached the known human resource practices and norms within the Public Service by failing to shortlist serving PSs who applied for the position as they had worked in the government for over 25 years,” he said.
The petitioner argued that the commission commenced the recruitment of the secretaries before the President and the deputy President were sworn into office thus without an effective Executive structure in place.
“To date there is a non-existent Executive structure in place to warrant the appointment of the secretaries as purportedly conducted and carried out by the PSC,” he argued.
National values
He added that the PSC was usurping the Executive powers of the President taking over the Executive structure yet to be constituted by the President.
“The interviewing process falls short of the principal of public participation and accountability as provided for under the national values and principal of governance set out under Article 10 of the Constitution,” submitted Mulindi.
Judge Mumbi Ngugi certified the matter as urgent. The matter will be heard today (Monday).
