Captain Kungu Muigai, a cousin of former President Uhuru Kenyatta, will be a member of the Kenya Cultural Centre Council for three more years following an extension of his uncertainty-riddled first term.
Mr Kungu was first gazetted as a member and the chairman of the board of the Kenya Cultural Centre on January 20, 2023 by the then Culture Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba.
Whereas his appointment as a member was undisputed, his posting at the chairman was challenged by one David Njoe Kithunka, who filed a petition at the High Court in Nairobi to question Mr Kungu’s installation.
Mr Njoe argued that as per the Kenya Cultural Centre Act, the chairman position is elective. Justice Lawrence Mugambi agreed with him and nullified Mr Kungu’s appointment in a judgment made on December 31, 2023.
“A declaration is hereby issued that the purported appointment of Capt Kungu Muigai to be the Chairman of the Board of the Kenya Cultural Centre Council, for a period of two years, with effect from January 20, 2023, is invalid, null and void,” said the judge.
Twenty-four days later, in the Kenya Gazette issue of January 24, Mr Kungu was reappointed by acting Culture Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi.
“In exercise of the powers conferred by section 3 (1) of the Kenya Cultural Centre Act, the Cabinet Secretary for Gender, Culture, the Arts and Heritage, re-appoints (Capt Kungu Muigai) to be a member of the Kenya Cultural Centre Council, for a period of three years, with effect from January 24, 2025,” stated the notice.
Mr Kungu told Nation that he has since been elected chairman and so he will lead the council for the next three years.
He noted that the centre did not appeal Justice Mugambi’s verdict because his appointment for the first term elapsed on January 21.
“That term ran out on January 21, so we didn't consider it necessary to appeal. So, we let the term run out and so Mr Mudavadi has made a new appointment,” he said.
“What was irregular was not my appointment as a director. That, the Cabinet Secretary is empowered to do. But then regarding the chairman position, there’s a confusion there. The Kenya Cultural Centre Act says the chairman is elected by the board. But Mr Namwamba had appointed me as a director and a chairman,” he added.
He explained further: “The confusion was that the new parastatal Act…empowers the President to appoint chairmen. So the judge ignored that and said we go back to our Act, which is okay.”
Mr Kungu went against the grain in the lead-up to the 2022 General Election by backing the then Deputy President William Ruto, who later won the election, despite the fact that his cousin, President Uhuru Kenyatta, was backing Azimio candidate Raila Odinga.
The Kenya Cultural Centre has five member organisations as per the Act. These are the Nairobi Music Society, the Kenya Conservatoire of Music, the British Council in Kenya, His Highness the Aga Khan Ismailia Provincial Council, and the St John Ambulance Association (Kenya Centre). Member organisations, the Act says are “of a cultural, academic or philanthropic nature”.
“The objects of the cultural centre shall be to provide a centre for the use and enjoyment of the citizens of Kenya without distinction of race or creed, and to provide for the performance of music, drama and dancing, for the exhibition of works of art and craft and for the holding of meetings for discussion of matters of literary, historical, scientific or educational interest or importance, and such other purposes generally as may be approved by the council,” the Kenya Cultural Centre Act says.
