BY SAM ALFAN.
Attempts by a lobby group to block the swearing in a board appointed by President William Ruto to steer his brainchild the Hustler Fund has hit a snag.
This is after the Employment and Relations court declined to grant orders to Operation Linda Ugatuzi suspending the swearing in of Hustler Fund Advisory Board.
The board was gazzeted last week by Cooperatives and MSME Development CS Simon Chelugui.
Justice Monica Mbaru declined but directed the lobby group’s leader Fred Ogola and two others to serve the Attorney General with the court documents.
Ogola, lawyer Bernard Odero Okello and Kevin Macharia moved to court to challenge the appointment of the board saying it was constituted without an open, fair and competitive process and in total disregard of the Constitution.
He further says there was no public participation in picking the members.
Speaking at Milimani Law Courts building, Ogola faulted the judge over the failure to temporarily suspend the process to await the outcome of his petition.
He added that the president appointed the board without following the due process of the law.
He noted that the President Ruto complied with the law after launching the hustler Fund without appropriation.
“How do you appoint a board after dispensing Sh25 billion ? This board has not been have not been advertised or vetted, this board does not include people with disability or youth. The president said he is forming government of mama mboga or boda boda people. We have not seen mama mboga and bodaboda given chance to apply to sit on the board,” said Ogola.
In the gazette notice dated January 20, 2023, President Ruto appointed Irene Karimi as the Chairperson of the newly established Financial Inclusion Fund.
He also named Lawrence Kibet Chelimo, Paul Ndore Musyimi, and Hardlyne Lusui to the Hustler Fund Advisory Board.
The lobby group, however, said President Ruto and the CS handpicked the board hence denying other qualified persons an opportunity to serve in the board.
“The respondents violated the constitution by conducting the process of appointment in a clandestine manner catching everyone by surprise by only announcing appointments without precedent,” they argued in court documents.
It is their arguments that the President and the CS discriminated against persons with disability by not appointing any person with disability among the appointees.
“There is an imminent danger that the Interested Parties will assume office illegally hence rendering this petition an academic exercise… The rights of persons with disability to appointment will be violated if the Interested Parties assumes office hence suffering damage that cannot be compensated,” they argued in court documents.
In the petition, the lobbyists sought orders suspending the Gazette Notice announcing the appointment of the board for a period of three years and restraining the board from assuming office, taking oath of office or discharging the duties of the members of the financial inclusion fund board.
They said the Gazzette notice was surprisingly backdated to take effect from January 13, 2023, which was before the official publication in the Kenya gazette notice, a move that is contrary to the law.
According to them, the Board was appointed without advertising for the positions and also made their appointments in blatant disregard of public participation.
