Government appeals court’s decision to disband CA board

NAIROBI: The Government has moved to the Court of Appeal seeking to reverse last week’s decision by the High Court to disband the board of the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA).

Attorney General Githu Muigai, acting on behalf of the ministry of Information and Communication and CA, Wednesday lodged a formal appeal challenging Friday’s ruling by High Court Judge George Odunga, which quashed the gazette notice on the appointment of the CA board of directors. The State is seeking to have the seven members of the board re-instated.

This comes amid concerns that if the board of the media and telecommunications regulator is declared to be in office irregularly, then significant decisions it made might be challenged, possibly opening up an avalanche of lawsuits.

ICT Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i Wednesday confirmed the Government’s move to the Court of Appeal at the same time faulting what he termed as frivolous law suits that negate the gains made in the country’s ICT sector.

“We consulted with the Attorney General and under his advice, we have moved to the Court of Appeal to challenge the decision of the High Court,” he said. “We will abide by the decision of the court because as a government we respect the rule of law and the constitution which we enacted.”

“However, is it unfortunate that when every time the government makes appointments, we consult all the stakeholders widely only for some individuals to later move to courts under dubious grounds,” he said.

Matiangi maintained that the appointment of the board of CA was done within the confines of the law with adequate consultations with all the appropriate stakeholders including representatives from the consumer federation and private sector alliance with the ministry only certifying the appointments.

“We have made great strides in terms of ICT and the sector was one of the fastest growing last year going by recent figures and we should stop these legal confrontations which particularly prevalent in this ministry,” he stated.

This is not the first time that the CA, is finding itself in a legal morass. In 2012, the High Court nullified the re-appointment of the then Director General Charles Njoroge, leading to a legal dispute.