BY SAM ALFAN.
The High Court has suspended ongoing interviews for senior positions at Garissa and Laikipia Universities, pending the determination of a case filed activist Okiya Omtatah.
Employment and Labour Relations Judge Hellen Wasilwa suspended the interviews for the positions of Vice Chancellor and Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic and Students’ Affairs) and Deputy Vice Chancellor (Finance, Administration and Planning) at Garissa University and the position of Deputy Vice Chancellor (Administration, Finance and Planning) at Laipkipia University
The interviews were scheduled to start on December 3 and conducted by Public Service Commission (PSC).
Omtatah faulted the process because the vacancies, lists of applicants, and shortlists of the candidates to be interviewed and the venues and times of scheduled interviews were not advertised in the press. He further said there was no provision for public participation in the process.
He posits that the 2018 amendments to Section 35 of the Universities Act, 2012 takes precedence over the 2015 amendments to Section 39 of the Act, as they oust governing councils of public universities in toto from playing any role whatsoever and howsoever in the recruitment of Vice Chancellors and Deputy Vice Chancellors of their universities.
He added that PSC violated the law when it invited the Chairman and members of the Council of Garissa University to participate in the interviewing of candidates for the position.
He further adds that the inclusion of the Chairman and Council members will defeat the purpose for which Parliament amended Section 35(1)(a)(v) of the Universities Act, 2012, to remove any conflicts of interest so that the process and appointment can be independent.
“Hence, as interested parties in the outcome of the recruitment process, who will have to choose and appoint persons to the offices from the lists names of successful candidates forwarded to them by the PSC, the Chairman and members of the council of the university must be kept out in toto,” he said.
He said PSC is an independent constitutional commission which is subject to the Constitution and legislation (Articles 234(2)(a) and 249(2)(a) of the Constitution), and whose objects are to (a) protect the sovereignty of the people; (b) secure the observance by all State organs of democratic values and principles; and (c) promote constitutionalism (Article 249(1) of the Constitution).
He also argue that PSC does not have the capacity in law to empanel an interview panel composed of the Chair and members of councils of affected universities contrary to the express provisions of Section 35(1)(a)(v) of the Universities Act, 2012.
More so, in order to comply with the binding national values and principles of governance under Article 10 of the Constitution, and with the values and principles of public service under Article 232(1), the PSC has a duty to empanel persons who are NOT council members of affected universities. The members of the Council of affected universities are locked out by the law.
He says that the public was ambushed on the afternoon of Friday November 9, 2019, that the interviews would be held on Tuesday December 3, giving the public a notice of only one working day.