Two court rulings this week serve to illustrate glaring blunders in public appointments.
First, the High Court ruled that Ms Mwende Mwinzi, who has been nominated Ambassador to South Korea, cannot be forced to renounce her citizenship to take up the job as had been determined by a parliamentary committee.
Technically, she should not have been considered in the first place because of her dual nationality.
However, Parliament’s pronouncement that she had to renounce her American nationality was wrong.
Second, the Employment Court annulled appointment of Esther Murugi and Tiya Galgalo to the National Lands Commission because of serious irregularities.
Despite the glaring anomalies, they were nominated and approved by Parliament for formal appointment by the President.
Ideally, the appointments should be based on merit. In addition, there must be equity and inclusivity.
However, experience has shown that the appointments are often politically and ethnically driven.
The case of Ms Mwinzi was particularly unique. Ms Mwinzi has dual citizenship – Kenyan and US.
Article 78 (1) of the Constitution states that nobody should be appointed a State officer unless he or she is Kenyan.
This is the provision Parliament’s Defence and Foreign Affairs committee invoked when making decision on whether or not she should be appointed to the job.
Thus, the committee decreed that she should renounce her citizenship before taking up the job, which is what she challenged in court.
But the court made reference to sub-article (3) (B) of the same article 78 to clear her. The fact, however, was that her nomination was a misadventure.
Outside the realm of legalism, the straight facts are as follows. One, the President should do proper groundwork before making any public appointment.
A lot of time and resources are expended in resolving such matters.
Two, Parliament has to rethink the whole process of vetting and approving appointments.
Vetting should be conducted professionally and where there are doubts, MPs should make use of experts and research facilities at their disposal.
It is embarrassing when their decisions are overturned by courts because of misinformation.
Like in the Ms Mwinzi’s case, MPs never examined all provisions in law when they asked her to renounce her American citizenship.
The cases provide vital lessons and authorities must take heed. The law has now been laid out and a precedent set by the rulings.
Appointments to public offices should be properly thought through so that they do not become objects of legal contests.
They should be guided purely by the principles of meritocracy, fairness and equity.
Credit: Source link