Blow to Kilifi Governor Gideon Mung’aro as court bars vetting of Chief Officer nominees

Kilifi Governor Gideon Mung’aro has sufferd a blow after a Malindi court issued a restriction order blocking the vetting of his Chief Officer nominees pending the hearing of a petition.

Lady Justice Agnes Nzei certified the petition, which was filed by Edward Saro Tsuma and Joseph Barawa Chipa, as urgent and scheduled it for mentioning on December 8, 2022.

“…an interim order is hereby issued restraining the County Assembly of Kilifi or the vetting committee thereof from conducting any form of vetting of the listed Chief Officers forwarded to the clerk of Kilifi County Assembly as listed and/or indicated in the letter dated 21/11/2022 to the Assembly Clerk, and as contained in the county assembly website pending hearing and determination of the application,” ruled the magistrate.

“…if already vetted, the Chief Officers are restrained from taking office pending hearing and determination of the application. The application, the petition herein and this order shall be served on the Respondent forthwith.”

The respondents in the petition are listed as the Kilifi County Public Service Board, Speaker of the county assembly, Governor Mung’aro, as well as the Chief Officer nominees.

The petitioners argue that some of the 10 nominees for Chief Officer slots were designated to different positions from the ones that they were interviewed for, thereby terming this an illegality.

They further claim that, in the list of nominees presented to the county assembly for vetting, persons with disability as well as those from marginalized communities were not considered.

“There threshold applied for good governance and ethics were not applied and there are so many glaring and open signs of tribalism and nepotism.  Some regions were never or totally ignored or deliberately under represented i.e. Shimo la Tewa ward, read the petition filed by lawyer Kai Ronald Mwasaha.