- Justice Hedwig Ong'undi will also give directions on other applications one by the Attorney General who is challenging the jurisdiction of the high court to hear the matter.
- The AG is of the view the case should be handled by the Employment and Labor Relations Court as the matter touches on employment issues.
Image: FILE
The High court will on Friday give directions on an application seeking to lift orders that stopped the 50CAS from being in office and earning salaries.
Justice Hedwig Ong'undi will also give directions on other applications one by the Attorney General who is challenging the jurisdiction of the high court to hear the matter.
The AG is of the view the case should be handled by the Employment and Labor Relations Court as the matter touches on employment issues.
Another application the court will give directions on is an application by one of the petitioners Eliud Matindi who seeks to have the matter referred to the chief justice for the empanelment of an uneven number of judges to hear the case.
When the matter came up before the Judge Tuesday, CASs Evans Kidero, Nicholas Gumbo, and Samuel Tunai sent their legal representatives to persuade the court to set aside the orders issued 4 days ago.
Dennis Itumbi was the first to ask the court to lift the order.
But the Judge did not pronounce herself on the issue. She instead directed the parties to appear in court on Friday for directions.
There are two matters filed in court over the CAS case.
One is by Eliud Matindi a Kenyan citizen residing in the United Kingdom and another by the Law Society of Kenya and Katiba Institute.
Through lawyer Dan Okemwa LSK and Katiba said the nomination goes against a letter to the chairperson of the Public Service Commission (PSC) from the Head of Public Service in October last year requesting for a vacancy declaration of 23 vacancies in the office of CAS.
“At the time of their application, only 23 vacancies lawfully existed. Through the unilateral decision by PSC to unconstitutionally and unlawfully create an additional 27 positions, there exist serious doubts as to the legality and irregularity of their appointments.”
The two accused PSC of abdicating its roles which they say has enabled the president to establish 27 additional offices in violation of the constitution.
“There is an eminent threat of infringement of the constitution if the interested parties proceed to assume office,” they said
They told the court the move by the President to unconstitutionally create an additional twenty-seven offices in the public service to be financed using public funds violates article 201 and 228 (5) which calls for prudent use of public service.
The petition according to the court documents seeks to examine the powers of the president to create an office for the public and whether he can disregard the recommendations of the PSC.
Those sued are the President of the Republic of Keya and PSC.
But Itumbi through Lawyer Adrian Kamotho says there is no known law that caps the number of chief administrative secretaries at 23.
He argues that the number of office holders to recommend is purely within the province of the public service commission based on a comprehensive workload analysis among other relevant considerations.
He claimed the petitioners misled the court to issue an order that would never have been issued had they not irregularly withheld critical matters from the court.
"By deceptively failing to disclose the subsistence of the gazette notice, the appointment of the 50 CASs, the petitioner fraudulently misled the court to issue irregular orders by cunningly stating that the appointments contravened an unauthenticated letter addressed to the chairperson of the public service commission by Joseph Kinyua, a former head of public service requesting for a vacancy declaration of 23 vacancies," says Itumbi.
Those are some of the reasons he wants the orders lifted.