ANNET NERIMA
Africa-Press – Kenya. On January 22, the High Court overturned the creation of 21 presidential advisers’ offices. The case was brought by the Katiba Institute.
The court found, with finality, that President William Ruto acted unlawfully by circumventing the Public Service Commission, disregarding the Salaries and Remuneration Commission, and denying the public an opportunity to participate when he appointed the 21 advisers.
Subsequently, former advisers, including David Ndii and Makau Mutua, sought to set aside this progressive decision. Nora Mbagathi, executive director of the Katiba Institute, noted: “This ruling, which highlights that you can’t have a bite at the same apple twice, is particularly relevant in light of the fact that the Interested Parties who made this application elected not to participate in the proceedings until now.”
I could not have put it better.
Let us be clear: the former advisers were operating unconstitutional offices.
A report by the Office of the Controller of Budget shows that the Office of the President spent a staggering Sh1.07 billion on government advisory services in the 2024-25 financial year.
But this trend did not emerge overnight. Government allocations for advisory services rose from Sh688.7 million in 2021-22 to Sh1.25 billion in 2025-26—an 81 per cent increase.
Following gradual growth, a short-lived contraction, and a sharp 92.7 per cent surge in 2024, advisory expenditures expanded even as critical socioeconomic sectors faced severe resource constraints.
Former advisers earned salaries and allowances exceeding Sh1 million per month, comparable to those of senior state officials. Additional benefits—including car loans of up to Sh10 million and mortgages of up to Sh40 million—further inflated costs. With annual spending of about Sh1 billion on the 21 former advisers, the country lost roughly Sh3 billion over the last three years.
An investment of Sh3 billion could have yielded transformative and measurable outcomes in Kenya’s education and healthcare sectors. In education, such funding could construct approximately 300 classrooms, establish 100 modern science laboratories, develop 400 early childhood education centres, and support digital learning by providing 100,000 tablets across 500 schools.
The same investment could finance advanced professional training for 30,000 teachers and provide four-year scholarships for 6,000 vulnerable students.
In healthcare, these resources could upgrade 40 maternity wards, equip 200 community health facilities, deploy 100 mobile clinics to underserved regions, establish emergency medical reserves, and expand workforce training.
We applaud the court’s decision. The judges reaffirmed transparency, accountability, and constitutional limits on executive authority. As Prof Yash Pal Ghai observes, the constitution sought to dismantle imperial presidentialism by subjecting executive power to clear procedural constraints.
Within this framework, proliferating advisory offices are unconstitutional, inefficient, and regressive. Ruto’s unilateral appointments violate Articles 10, 73, and 201 of the constitution, which demand transparency, integrity, and prudent management of public resources. These actions weakened constitutional governance, eroded public trust, and undermined the public interest.
PSC, the Controller of Budget, the National Treasury, and the State House Comptroller must now comply with the court orders. Effective from the date of the decision, there should be no requests or approvals for any expenditure related to these offices. Any person who contravenes the orders must be held liable.
Finally, is it time to pursue the former advisers to refund the public money they earned? I believe so. They ought to have known that the offices they were handpicked to run were unconstitutional ab initio. They should have rejected them. They did not.
Programme Manager for Political Accountability in State Institutions at the Kenya Human Rights Commission
Source: The Star
