- The Solicitor General’s pronouncement is a relief to Mutemi who has been embroiled in boardroom wars with the CEO whom she accused of abusing his powers
- However, Ogeto noted that it is a breach of the law for the IEBC employee to continue drawing allowances from another government agency
IEBC communications manager Tabitha Mutemi on Wednesday won first round in the battle against Media Council of Kenya CEO David Omwoyo over her alleged ouster from MCK board.
Solicitor General Kennedy Ogeto on Wednesday told a parliamentary committee that the removal of Mutemi was irregular as the law was not followed.
As a result, Ogeto noted that she remains legally a member of the council until the procedure to remove her is followed.
“The process of her removal has not been exhausted, as long as it has not been exhausted she remains a board member,” Ogeto said.
The Solicitor General’s pronouncement is a relief to Mutemi who has been embroiled in boardroom wars with the CEO whom she accused of abusing his powers.
However, Ogeto noted that it is a breach of the law for the IEBC employee to continue drawing allowances from another government agency.
The same position was taken by ICT PS Esther Koimet who told the committee chaired by William Kisang that her office sought Attorney General’s legal opinion on the matter.
Koimet said the AG's opinion advised that Mutemi’s continued holding of the two positions was an illegality.
“The holding of both offices of an employee of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission and a member of the Media Council of Kenya by Mutemi is a continuing violation of the Constitution and other statutes requiring immediate remedial action,” Koimet told the MPs.
Mutemi had petitioned Parliament over an attempt by Omwoyo to revoke her appointment as the council member on the account of her status as an employee of a public institution.
She told the Committee on Communication Information and Innovation that the CEO wrote her a letter on January 22, 2021, informing her that the Secretariat will no longer recognise her as a council member.
Omwoyo was acting on the strength of an advisory by the Attorney General Kihara Kariuki that a public officer should not hold two public offices at the same time.
But Mutemi defended herself saying she made the disclosure when she made the application and during the interview that he was a manager at the electoral agency.
Through her lawyer Kethi Kilonzo, she cited an earlier advisory by the AG’s office during her vetting that advised that there was no illegality in having a public officer hold a slot at the media regulator’s board.
Ogeto, however, disowned last year’s advisory.
Kenya Union of Journalists Secretary General Erick Oduor who chaired MCK Selection Panel told the committee that indeed the AG advised his panel not to bar public office holders from the position.
The matter of the missing advisory generated heat in the sitting with MPs calling for action if at all it will be established that AG issued an advisory clearing the recruitment of Mutemi.
“If we finally established that an advisory was issued and that there was an attempt to mislead the committee then action must be taken,” nominated MP Goddfrey Osotsi said.
Kisang said the committee will have another meeting with the Board, Auditor General Nancy Gathungu and the CEO over some governance issues he did not explain.
-Edited by Sarah Kanyara