Deputy President William has a reason to reasons to smile after attempts to placed his office under the office of President Uhuru Kenyatta backfired.
The high Court temporarily suspended the implementation of Executive Order to set out the Judiciary & its tribunals under Ministries pending hearing & determination of a case filed by LSK. The case before the court is challenging the legality of the President’s action.
President Uhuru Kenyatta made subtle changes within the structure of government, including the name of his office from The Presidency to the Executive Office of the President.
With President Uhuru’s arrangement, Executive Order No. 1 of 2020 was interpreted as to downgrade the Deputy President’s office and tucked under the Executive Office of the President. DP William Ruto would not get any portfolio and had to wait to be assigned duties from the office of the executive president.
The issue brought a lot of contestation hence triggering activists and the Law Society of Kenya to take the President to Court.
The executive order also placed constitutional commissions and independent bodies under the control of the Attorney-General and Cabinet Secretaries.
High Court Judge, Justice James Makau ruled that the President used the administrative process to
invoked his powers unconstitutionally to restructure and re-organize the offices.
The judge added that, the petitioner, the Law Society of Kenya (LSK), proved that public interest would be interfered with if the interim order were not issued pending hearing and determination of its case.
“It has been shown that various independent offices including the Judiciary and some of its tribunals have now been placed under various State Departments and Ministries,” said Justice Makau.
The Judge said that failure to suspend the order would have rendered the petition nugatory as the Executive Order was already in force, and would see various key irreversible decisions made.
Other decisions the Justice Makau said were likely to be issued under the President’s order were these concerning budgetary allocations for various ministries and departments.
” Budgetary estimates have also been given or are likely to be given and the court shall not be in a position to reverse the same upon hearing the petition. Various appointments to the tribunals and independent offices are likely to be made, among others,” said the Judge
