The Employment and Labour Relations Court has declined to stop ongoing interviews for the position of chief executive officer of the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission.
Justice Byram Ongaya said on Wednesday that the application by five petitioners to stop the interviews, which entered the second day on Tuesday, was not justified.
The petitioners had argued that the process of shortlisting the 172 applicants was marred with procedural improprieties as some applicants were favoured to the disadvantage of others.
Mr David Kiplagat, Elijah Oluoch, Ali Mohamed, Sandra Mwita and Wilfred Gathu said the commission advertised for the position of CEO on September 17 and 172 applied.
The commission shortlisted 14 candidates and the interviews started on Tuesday, November 19.
Through lawyer Peter Ndung’u, the five applicants claimed that the process undertaken by the Commission was not open and transparent as the EACC failed to enlist the services of an independent body or professional experts to do the shortlisting.
At the close of the application, the commissioners of EACC retreated to a Nairobi hotel together with supporting staff for shortlisting purposes.
The petitioners argued that the decision to engage the commissioners in the shortlisting exercise, with the knowledge that some EACC officers were among the candidates who had applied for the position, renders the whole process partial and unfair, and therefore against the constitution.
“The exercise undertaken by the commissioners cannot be said to be competitive, transparent and open as the commissioners retreated for the shortlisting, where some of the applicants and current commission’s employees,” Ms Mwita said.
The application was opposed by EACC through Mr Ben Murei who submitted that the exercise had been transparent from the start.
Mr Murei wondered why the petitioners had to wait for more than one month before challenging the process.
The lawyer further said the interviews had complied with the law as the shortlisting was done not jointly by EACC, the Attorney-General, the Public Service Commission and the Association of Professional Societies in East Africa.
“I have considered submissions by counsel for the application for an order of stay process and the prayer is hereby declined as not justified,” said the judge.
