Are Cabinet secretaries justified to use public resources to campaign at Jubilee political rallies?

Deputy President William Ruto, joined by CSs Eugene Wamalwa and Charles Keter at a Jubilee rally in Bomet over the weekend.

We cannot support the idea of public servants and especially the Cabinet secretaries using State resources to campaign for the Jubilee administration and in particular President Uhuru Kenyatta.

Several CSs have been deployed to various parts of the country not only to ‘launch and coordinate’ development projects but convince voters to re-elect Uhuru and his DP William Ruto.

We have established that Cabinet secretaries and Principal Secretaries (PSs) were first deployed in campaigns during the recent mass voter registration in the guise that the exercise was civic duty.

This is despite strict laws barring public servants from participating in campaigns for any political party.

Those who do that should be liable for prosecution. We are wondering what Director of Public Prosecutions Keriako Tobiko is doing about it.

By now, the DPP ought to have opened a file for all the public servants who have openly campaigned for the Jubilee administration.

The electoral agency comes at the tail end of the process after the election. But what is DPP doing?

This is pure negligence on the part of the DPP.

We are contemplating entering private prosecution on public servants using public resources to campaign for a political party or President Uhuru Kenyatta’s re-election.

Both the Constitution and Elections Act bar State officers from engaging in active politics, which is not limited only to vying for elective posts but also participating in political party activities such as campaigns.

The Public Officers’ Ethics Act and leadership and integrity laws further require that a public officer should not engage in political activity that may compromise or be seen to interfere with the neutrality of their office.

John Mbadi - ODM Chairman and Suba MP