Kinyuas parastatal term limit directive contested

Activist Okiya Omtatah has filed a case against the Public Service Commission, Joseph Kinyua over a circular that scrapped age and term limits for chief executive officers of State corporations.

Omtatah now wants the court to issue an interim order of injunction prohibiting Kinyua and PSC from implementing in any way whatsoever the said circular.

Omtatah argues that Kinyua does not have the capacity in law to direct the operations of the public service.

Kinyua had issued circular ref. no. op/cab.9/1a of 27th February 2018, seeking to exempt CEOs of public bodies from the application of the law on of the mandatory retirement age of 60 years and changed the maximum tenure of service from a maximum of six years to ten years.

In the petition, Omtatah claims that Kinyua, who is the State House Chief of Staff and busybody, masquerades as the Head of Public Service, purporting to have powers to instruct or direct principal Secretaries, yet he has never been vetted by parliament and is not an authorized officer.

“Kinyua is a busybody with no capacity to oust the mandate of the Public Service Commission” claims Omtatah
Omtatah wants the court to declare that the office of the Head of Public Service does not exist in law and such designation are invalid, null and void.

“Unless stopped by this honorable court, the impugned circular will be implemented across the public service, and the constitution and the law will be violated” reads the petition

According to Omtatah, Kinyua issued the circular which was subjectively created through an irregular, harried, arbitrary and opaque process that did not involve public participation.

“The right to fair administrative action is violated to the extent that impugned exemption of the CEOs from mandatory retirement age, and extension of tenures is not lawful reasonable or procedurally fair,” Omtatah argues.

He also wants the court to compel Kinyua to immediately refund to PSC any money that he had earned while allegedly masquerading as the Head of Public Service.