Africa-Press – Kenya. 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.
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