Machakos Governor Alfred Mutua's newly appointed CECs will not be vetted because
the county assembly failed to approve them within 21 days of their nomination.
Mutua has invoked section 9 of the public appointments act on nomination, which stipulates that on expiry of the period for consideration specified in section 8, the candidate shall be deemed to have been approved.
The governor said after his re-election, he nominated an initial list of five executives and submitted them for vetting by the assembly.
MCAs rejected all the five nominees on grounds which, many believe, were largely influenced by political biases than the legal requirements for vetting.
"These consultations led to me appointing three Ministers from my outgoing Cabinet and nominating seven others for vetting by the Assembly," Mutua said.
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He said the list was committed to the County Assembly through communication by the Speaker on May 21, 2018.
As required under the law, the Assembly Appointment Committee notified members of the public of the nominations and invited them to make any representations regarding the suitability or otherwise of the nominees through a newspaper advert on May 25 2018.
Through the same advertisement, the nominees were also notified of the dates and venue of their vetting hearings.
Subsequently, all the nominees appeared before the Appointments Committee for their vetting at different dates starting from June 11, 2018.
After the vetting, the Appointments Committee tabled its report to the County Assembly on July 18, 2018.
Mutua said MCAs have been hostile to the executive, yet decisions are made in the best interest of the people.
Debate on the report was, however, interrupted by a motion seeking stoppage of the discussion of the report.
The said motion was eventually put to vote where a majority of the members voted in its favour.
"I have made the appointments in the best interest of the people of Machakos in upholding the Constitution and rule of law," Mutua said.
The new executives include Evelyn Mutie (energy, lands and housing), Engineer Morris Aluanga (roads, transport and public works).
Titus Nzeki was appointed to county administration and decentralised units.
Francis Mwaka takes over trade, industrialisation and innovation while Kimeu Mbithi has been appointed to head public service, quality management and ICT.
Urbanus Musyoka and Lazarus Wambua will take up agriculture and education, respectively.
The MCA's had refused to vet the new CEC claiming that they will wait for the outcome of a petition challenging Mutua's election as the governor.
Mutua's election was later nullified by the appeal court.
Court of Appeal judges William Ouko, Mohamed Warsame and Gatembu Kairu said the election results that declared Mutua the winner failed the constitutional test of verifiability.
The Supreme Court directed that the two appeals challenging the election be heard together.