A labour court has quashed a vacancy notice for the position of director general of the Communications Authority of Kenya published last year.
Employment and Labour Relations Judge Maureen Onyango on Wednesday said the advert failed to meet the minimum statutory requirement in terms of qualifications for the position and process of advertisement.
“There was both procedural impropriety as well as illegality in the advert of the position of DG for CA,” she said.
The Information Communication Technology Association of Kenya filed the case last year, arguing that it was unhappy with the advertisement because it introduced qualifications that are not contained in the law and the Mwongozo code of governance for state corporations promulgated by President Uhuru Kenyatta.
ICTAK also claimed that the timeframe for closing of the advertisement did not conform with the human resource policies and procedures manual of the Public Service Commission, which provides that vacancies be open for at least 21 days.
The judge said the commission was bound to give a minimum of 21 days before closing the advert for interested persons to apply for the vacant position.
She observed that the initial advert was on May 22 and closed on June 9. The re-advertisement was on June 17 long after the lapse of the original advert and could not be considered to be an extension.
“A person who only saw the re-advertisement and not the original one was entitled to the full 21 days before closure of the advert,” she said.
Onyango added that both the original and the re-advertisement failed to meet the minimum requirement under the PSC human resource policies.
Following the lapse of the contract for the immediate past director general of CA, the board advertised for the position in one of the local dailies on May 22, 2020 specifying the qualifications, duties and conditions for the position.
On June 2, the ICTAK wrote to the CA demanding the immediate cancellation of the vacancy notice. There was then a re-advertisement on June 17.
Edited by Henry Makori
