Commission draws Attorney General into Kenya Airports Authority boss appointment row

Transport & Infrastructure Cabinet Secretary Eng. Michael Kamau with Principal secretary Transport Nduva Muli and Kenya Airport authority Managing Director Lucy Mbugua at the JKIA Terminal 2 site last week.

Kenya: The recruitment of Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) Managing Director, which was condemned by the Commission on Administrative Justice, has been referred to Attorney General Githu Muigai for legal opinion.

The Ombudsman has recommended replacement of Joseph Irungu (a director of administration at the Office of the President) as KAA director for open bias that saw the fourth-placed candidate, Lucy Mbugua, named the Managing Director.

In a confidential letter dated July 27th, to Commission Chairman Otiende Amollo which The Standard on Saturday has a copy, Transport Cabinet Secretary Michael Kamau said he had sought AG’s opinion over the matter.

Prof Muigai however said he was yet to receive Mr Kamau’s letter.

Mr Otiende’s letter reads in part: “Your letter has raised several substantive and constitutional issues in regard to the above named subject. Pursuant to section 19 of the Office of the Attorney General Act which provides all government ministries, departments and state corporations to seek the opinion of the Attorney General, on any matter raising substantial legal or constitutional issues, we have sought the opinion of AG and we will revert to you on receipt of the requested opinion.”

Speaking to The Standard on Saturday on phone, the AG declined to discuss the matter saying he was not aware of it. He promised to issue a statement once he reads the letter.

He said: “That is news to me. I have not received any letter from the Transport CS. It might have first gone to our legal department but be sure I will share with you the exact position.”

The Office of Administrative Justice began investigating the matter in March following a complaint filed by the Consumer Federation of Kenya (Cofek), which had alleged that the Transport Ministry had failed to respond to concerns on Ms Mbugua’s hiring. The consumer lobby through its CEO Stephen Mutoro accused Kamau of using the AG’s office to buy time.

He said: “By writing to AG, the CS is only buying time in the hope that Kenyans forget about it. We are not in any way against Mbugua but the selection process.”

Mutoro said Kamau should to have sought the AG’s opinion earlier and not now.

In a nine page letter copied to the AG, Transport PS, Cofek and Ministry of Interior and Co-ordination of National Government, Secretary of Administration, Omolo says Irungu awarded a lot of marks to Mbugua.

The letter says Irungu awarded marks in favour of the director to tilt results which under normal circumstances would have placed her fourth; and locked her out.

“The margin of award of marks by Irungu between his best candidate Lucy Mbugua (239) and his worst candidate Hudson Aluvanze (105) is the highest by 134. This in our opinion is too big a margin raising suspicion. Further it is noted that the four candidates were awarded extremely low marks in an attempt to deliberately favour Mbugua. It is noted that if Irungu’s computation was to be removed, Mbugua will move from 1st to 4th position, a clear indication of bias arising from Mr Joseph Irungu’s award of marks,” said the 25th June report.

Attempts to get a comment from KAA chairman Mutuma Mugambi were fruitless as he was said to be out of office.