Justin Muturi Appeals Court's Ruling On CAS Appointments

Justin Muturi, the Attorney General (AG), has filed an appeal against a High Court judgement that annulled President William Ruto's appointment of 50 Chief Administrative Secretaries (CASs) on Monday.

The case, which has been designated as urgent, will be heard before Lady Justice Mugure Thande on Wednesday at 9 a.m.

Judges Kanyi Kimondo, Hedwig Ong'udi, and Aleem Visram concluded on Monday that public engagement in the formation of the CAS posts was only performed for 23 occupants and that the creation of the additional 27 occupants did not comply with the constitutional requirement of public participation.

The court stated that, although the job was eliminated last year, "once that office was abolished on 21 September 2022, the newly-created office and complement of 23 office holders could no longer benefit from that stay."

"In order to be lawfully established, the newly-created office and its new complement of 50 had to comply with the constitution and the criteria established earlier in Okiyah's case." They refused to cooperate. "As a result, the entire complement of 50 CASs is unconstitutional," the court said.

This appeal comes even after Senior counsel Ahmednasir Abdullahi advised the Attorney General not to appeal the 50 Cabinet Administrative Secretaries case ruling.

"The Attorney General should not appeal the 50 CAS case to the Court of Appeal. If he appeals...the route is that the courts took through the BBI process," Ahmednasir said.

A three-judge bench said Ruto violated the Constitution by hiring the team without public participation.

The bench held that the framers of the Constitution of Kenya 2010 intended to have less than 50 CASs deputise 22 cabinet secretaries.

They said creating a similar office to the assistant minister now in the name of CAS cannot be done in the manner in which Ruto and the PSC proceeded.