Lawyer fights fresh hiring of Foreign Service Academy team

Lawyer Karanja Kamotho wants the court to block Musalia Mudavadi from conducting fresh interviews for the positions of three members of the Foreign Service Academy Council. PHOTO | POOL

A city advocate has moved to court to block the Ministry of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs from conducting fresh interviews for the positions of three members of the Foreign Service Academy Council.

Lawyer Karanja Kamotho wants instead, CS Musalia Mudavadi compelled to appoint the three members from the list of persons who were interviewed and selected by a panel from the process completed in September last year.

Mr Kamotho said the recruitment of members of the Council, which was undertaken between June and September 2023 was done using public funds and a fresh recruitment commenced by the Ministry in December is without justification, and amounts to irresponsible and imprudent use of public money and financial management.

“An Order of Mandamus compelling the 2nd Respondent (Mr Mudavadi) to immediately appoint as members of the Foreign Service Academy Council, pursuant to section 30(1)(d) of the Foreign Service Act, 2021 the persons recruited following the interviews conducted between 11th –14th September 2023 by the selection panel,” Mr Kamotho said.

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High Court judge Chacha Mwita certified the case as urgent and directed Mr Kamotho to serve the court documents on Mr Mudavadi, PS Foreign Affairs Dr Korir Sing’oei and Attorney General Justin Muturi.

The judge directed the case to be mentioned on April 15 for directions.

The Ministry advertised for the positions in June 2023, calling for eligible candidates for the three positions.

Among the requirements were for one to possess a postgraduate degree from a recognised university in the fields of international relations, international law, international diplomacy, economics, social sciences, or a relevant field and possess experience, knowledge or expertise in matters relating to foreign and diplomatic service.

After the deadline, 462 applicants were long-listed and the number was reduced to 26 and slated to appear for interviews between September 11 and 14, 2023 in a panel comprising, among others, Mr Kirimi Kaberia, Ms Stella Orina and chaired by Prof Ludeki Chweya.

The application and interview process entailed submission by the applicants of multiple documents, most of which require considerable effort and expense to obtain, Mr Kamotho said.

Mr Kamotho said he read in one of the daily newspapers last year that Prof Maria Nzomo, Dr Patrick Maluki Muthengi and Dr Owiso Owiso had been picked by the selection panel but the PS had allegedly declined to appoint them and had instead ordered for re-advertisement.

“In deciding to discard the outcome of a competitive recruitment process and to re-advertise the positions in November 2023, the Respondents neither provided justification nor communicated the rationale to the public,” he said.

The lawyer said he and other Kenyans had a legitimate expectation that the outcome of the process would be publicly communicated and that those competitively selected to this public office would accordingly be appointed.

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“By subjecting qualified and competent Kenyans to a competitive recruitment process, only to turn around and ignore the results or outcome of that process and further failing to communicate to Kenyans, and instead re-advertising the positions, the Respondents have subjected these Kenyans to indignity and humiliation and have unfairly and unjustly discriminated against them, and this is in clear violation of Articles,” Mr Kamotho said.

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