The High Court declined to stop the ongoing recruitment of members of the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF), as sought by Nairobi MPs, saying public interest favoured allowing the process to proceed as scheduled.
In a ruling, Justice Bahati Mwamuye added that public interest lay in allowing an exercise that was geared towards bolstering the security and defence capabilities of the country to proceed and in the manner that has been designed, pending the hearing and determination of the petition.
“The public interest would be significantly compromised if public authorities were placed in a position where alleged non-compliance with the Constitution and statute at the interlocutory stage in one of 47 counties has the same effect as having non-compliance in all 47 counties, that is, a halting of recruitment in all counties on the basis of allegations of non-compliance in one county,” said the judge.
Nineteen Nairobi legislators, led by Embakasi West MP Mark Mwenje, Edwin Sifuna (Nairobi senator) and Woman representative Esther Passaris, claimed that Nairobi had been discriminated against as the entire county had been allocated only three recruitment centres to serve the 17 sub-counties.
The exercise in other counties, they submitted, would be conducted at every sub-county level.
Justice Mwamuye added that the MPs should have demonstrated to the required standard that stopping the recruitment would not jeopardise Kenya’s national security. “They did not do so,” said the judge.
According to the judge, the 19 MPs only stated that Kenya was currently not at war, and thus the recruitment exercise can be halted for the short time, pending the determination of the case.
“At this interlocutory stage, and absent a legally satisfactory counter, the public interest in maintaining a state of capacity and readiness that allows Kenya to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century security and defence environment and maintain the establishing ethos articulated in Article 239(2) of the Constitution cannot be gainsaid,” said the judge.
The judge emphasised that whereas the court was capable of halting the recruitment, it can only do so where the various aspects of public interest have been met.
“It is the finding of this Court that the petitioners/applicants have not met the requisite threshold under this limb and that the public interest favours the orders being sought being declined at this interlocutory stage,” added the judge.
The judge, however, agreed that the MPs had raised arguable issues that should be addressed at the hearing of the case.
The KDF published a notice on September 14, for the recruitment of General Service Officer (GSO) Cadets (regular and graduate), specialist officers, general duty recruits, tradesmen and women and defence forces constables.
