Lawyer Vincent Lempaa Suyianka has filed a petition seeking to have the court bar President William Ruto from appointing any more advisors, pending the hearing and determination of the application.
In the application certified as urgent, lawyer Lempaa also wants the court to issue an order instructing the Cabinet Secretary of the National Treasury, John Mbadi, to stop paying the already existing 21 presidential advisors.
“Pending the hearing and determination of this application, an order of injunction be issued to the 2nd Respondent (Cabinet Secretary of the National Treasury, John Mbadi) to stop him from paying salaries and other allowances to the 1st to the 21st Interested Parties,” part of the petition read.
Further, the petition seeks to have the 21 advisors compelled not to receive any salaries or allowances from the Cabinet Secretary of the National Treasury, pending its hearing and determination.
According to lawyer Lempaa, by dint of Article 165(4) of the Constitution, the court should certify the petition as raising substantial questions of law and forward it to Chief Justice Martha Koome for the purpose of empanelling an uneven bench of judges.
In an affidavit, he also argues that there is no law or regulation on how many advisors the president can appoint, opening a window for President Ruto to inundate the civil service with political appointees, who he says are recruited outside the values and principles of public service.
He also contends that the lack of a law or regulation on the number of advisors the president can appoint is not a carte blanche to saturate and overwhelm the public service with political appointees.
Notably, he asserts that overwhelming the public service with advisors violates the prudent use of public funds.
Lempaa states that the political appointees continue to receive billions of shillings in salaries and other allowances at the expense of Kenyan taxpayers.
Additionally, he states that some of the duties and responsibilities of the said advisors can be handled by relevant civil servants in various government departments.
President Ruto has so far appointed 21 advisors, including Professor Makau Mutua, Moses Kuria, David Ndii, Edward Kisiang’ani, Monica Juma, Joseph Boinnet, Jaoko Oburu, Sylvester Okumu, Harriet Chiggai, Major (Rtd) Ali Somane, Abdi Guliye, and Steven Otieno, among others.
