The High Court has ruled that the establishment of 50 Chief Administrative Secretaries (CAS) is unconstitutional.
Justice Kanyi Kimondo in his ruling on Monday, July 3 stated that President William Ruto had requested the Public Service Commission (PSC) to declare 23 vacancies for CAS positions.
He also noted that a special gazette notice issued by PSC and advertisement in the media did not indicate the number of CAS vacancies.
“The head of state requested PSC to declare 23 vacancies for CASs, we note however that the special issue of Kenya Gazette notice dated October 12, 2022, and the media advertisement following day calling for applications from suitable candidates did not set the number of vacancies,” he stated.
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Kimondo also ruled that the original CASs office was scraped in September 2022 and the new office created could no longer benefit from the original stay orders.
“Furthermore the stay order in the court of appeal preserved the original office created on January 24, 2018, once that office was abolished on September 21, 2022, the newly created office and complement of 23 office holders could no longer benefit from that stay accordingly the newly created office and fresh compliment of 50 had to comply with the constitution and the criteria set out earlier in the Okiya Omtatah case, they did not comply for the avoidance of doubt the entire complement of 50 CASs is therefore unconstitutional," he added.
Justice Hedwig Ong'undi on her part stated that there was no public participation in the creation of 27 extra CAS positions.
“This process in our opinion did not satisfy the guiding principles set out by the Supreme Court in the BAT case. We say so because as a guiding principle, public participation must be real and cover all forms of governance,” she stated.
