The High Court had ruled that the appointment of all of President William Ruto’s 50 Chief Administrative Secretaries was unconstitutional.
Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah has emerged with a fresh anti-government stand, this time against President William Ruto’s Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS) positions.
While making the ruling, the majority of the 3-judge bench stated that there was no adequate public participation.
Omtatah now says that even on the CAS issue, Ruto contravened the law, agreeing with the High Court ruling that nullified the positions and blocked Ruto’s nominees from assuming office on Monday.
President William Ruto swore in the CAS on March 23, after the National Assembly declined to vet them, saying it had no constitutional authority to do so.
He observes that despite knowing this, Ruto is still trying to cleverly fit CASs between CSs and PSs, making PSs answerable to the CASs, which he says can not work constitutionally.
The appointment of the CASs was suspended after the Law Society of Kenya and the Katiba Institute challenged the President’s move on the grounds that the law only allowed him to appoint 23 CASs rather than 50.
“The PS is a holder of a constitutional office. So, how does the holder of a constitutional office answer to somebody who does not hold a constitutional office in the pecking order? The pecking order puts the CAS between the Cabinet Secretary and Principal Secretary. How does PSC create an office within the public service which is higher than the PS? And that office is unconstitutional?” he writes in The Star.
On a day marked by anti-government protests by the Azimio supporters, it emerged that the 50 CASs had taken office with some having embarked on their new roles.
The Senator says that the Principal Secretary is the highest public servant in a ministry and cannot be made junior to any other person apart from Cabinet Secretaries under whose dockets they are in.
The decision to have the CASs assume office has put the Ruto administration, which has been accused of trying to control the courts, on a collision path with the Judiciary and portends a tumultuous relationship.
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