The Kenyan Section of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ Kenya) has reviewed and interrogated the judgement of the Constitutional and Human Rights Division of the High Court of Kenya in Petition No E080 of 2023, Eliud Karanja and others vs The Republic of Kenya and others, commonly referred to as the Chief Administrative Secretary(CAS) case 2023.
On 12 October 2022, the Public Service Commission invited applications for 23 positions in the office of CAS vide Gazette Notice No. 12432. Thereafter, the advertisement was challenged by the Law Society of Kenya in the Employment and Labour Relations Court under Law Society of Kenya v The Public Service Commission and the Hon. AttorneyGeneral 1 . The Court found that the Public Service Commission had complied with the appropriate process required to hire the 23 CASs. The Public Service Commission thereafter shortlisted 240 candidates for interview. The interviews were conducted between 1 March 2023 to 7 March 2023. In his resolution dated 16 March 2023, the President nominated 50 persons for appointment against an initial vacancy declared for 23 positions.
On 3 July 2023, the High Court sitting as a three-Judge Bench sat to deliver its judgement over the creation of the Office Of The Chief Administrative Secretary as created by His Excellency the President of Kenya, Dr. William Ruto and The Public Service Commission.
In delivering its Judgement, the High Court declared the Office of Chief Administrative Secretary unconstitutional. Further, whereas there was public participation in the initial complement of 23 CAS, there was a lack of public participation in the additional complement of 27 Chief Administrative Secretaries. As a Commission of Jurists, we laud the High Court for asserting itself on the unconstitutionality of the Office of the Chief Administrative Secretary and the attendant processes that led to the recruitment, shortlisting and, thereafter, appointment.