Journalist, lawyer sue ICT PS over media agency appointments

PS Edward Kisiang’ani. [File, Standard]

Two appointees to the Media Complaints Commission have sued the Ministry of Information Cabinet Secretary and his Principal Secretary for failing to formalise their appointment.

Former senior Standard Group editor Nzau Musau and lawyer Lucy Minayo accuse the ­­CS and PS Edward Kisiang’ani of failing to gazette their names despite being forwarded to them after emerging the best in the interview.

The ministry advertised for the positions in June 2024.

Nzau and Minayo told High Court Judge Bahati Mwamuye that they were among 18 candidates interviewed for the position.

Their lawyer Guandaru Thuita said that among the requirements was to have been cleared by government agencies. 

“Petitioners were invited for interview and directed to avail, which they did, originals of their National Identity Cards, Academic Certificates, transcripts as well as clearance certificates from Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), Ethics & Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) as well as the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB),” said Thuita.

They were among four other persons to fill the six vacant positions.

However, their gazettement was delayed for three weeks after Prof Nancy Booker was appointed to the Nation Media Group (NMG) board, necessitating her replacement. 

Nzau and Minayo said that they were shocked to find that the CS had gazetted four names on July 12, 2024, and left them out.

In their case, the duo said that they got a letter from Kisiang’ani claiming that a background check and vetting from government agencies had found that they were not suitable for the appointment.

Kisiang’ani is alleged to have concluded that their nomination was not favourable to the sector.

While dismissing the PS’s letter, the two argued that Kisang’ani had no role in the appointment process and, hence, could not initiate his own checks after the interviews were done.

They asserted that the PS neither called them to rebut the claims nor were they told what the agencies had raised.

The duo argued that Kisiang’ani had come up with his own claims to illegally deny them a chance to sit as members of the commission.

They stated that the PS’s actions amounted to an illegality as they were condemned unheard.

“For the 1st and 2nd Respondents to simply label the Petitioners as unsuitable is an act that has greatly tarnished their images in the eyes of the right-thinking members of the society as well with the organisations that they work with more so because the rejection was widely publicized in the mass media,” argued Thuita. 

Nzau and Minayo roped in the Kenya Editors Guild, Kenya Union of Journalists and Law Society of Kenya as interested parties.

They argued that the CS and PS functions were ceremonial once the selection panel concluded its work and could only reject the nominees on reasonable grounds.

They likened their predicament to the standoff between former President Uhuru Kenyatta and the Judicial Service Commission over the appointment of Judges.

The court heard that the CS and Kisiang’ani had acted with impunity and against the law as DCI, KRA, EACC and HELB had cleared them.

“The first respondent contrary to the expectations and in act of dictatorship, impunity and wanton disregard for the law rejected the nomination of the Petitioners in an opaque manner devoid of justification and which may encourage cronyism, corruption and patronism,” they claimed.

According to them, the CS and the PS are interfering with the functions of the commission by deciding who sits and who does not sit.

They want the court to overturn the decision and compel them to gazette their names.

“By purporting to set aside the decision of the 3rd Respondent, the 1st Respondent is interfering with the functional independence of the 3rd Respondent and making it a puppet and rubber stamp of the 1st Respondent’s own preferred candidates in the recruitment process,” their lawyer said.