Intense leadership wrangles pitting the board and senior management team at the Kenya National Highways Authority (Kenha) has degenerated amid intensified efforts to ouster Board chairman Engineer Wangai Ndirangu from office.
Through a petition sent to the James Macharia, Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Infrastructure, Housing Urban Development and Public Works by Adera and Kenyatta Advocates on behalf of their client, George Balla wants Wangai’s appointment revoked citing breach of the law.
The petitioner says Wangai’s appointment is illegal since at the point of his appointment, until now, he is deemed as a public officer under Section 2 of the Public Officer Ethics Act No. 4 of 20222 since he was and still is an employee of the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT).
Lawyers avers that the appointment breached sections of the law that bar picking of public officers as chair of Kenha.
“Our client, as concerned member of the public, has been shocked to learn that Eng. Wangai Ndirangu was at the time of his appointment, and indeed up to now, employed by JKUAT in its Civil Engineering Department. This makes him a public officer as defined by Section 2 of the Public Officer Ethics Act No. 4 of 20222.” The petitioner says in part.
Wangai is considered a public officer by virtue of his employment at JKUAT, which is a State-owned institution.
“Kindly take notice that our firm and irrevocable instructions is to demand the immediate revocation of the appointment…within the next seven days, failure to which our instructions are to move to the High Court for revoking the said appointment,” said the letter dated March 24.
President Uhuru Kenyatta picked Wangai from directors appointed by Transport CS Macharia.
The petitioner asked CS Macharia to recommend the dropping of Wangai as chair of the Kenha, which handles mega projects such as Nairobi Expressway ahead of next week or risk legal action.
This comes at a time the Director General Kung’u Ndung’u is said to be at loggerheads with the board chairman over delayed confirmation of one of the deputy directors on substantive basis.
The ensuing friction pitting Kung’u, two General Managers, one serving in an acting capacity against the chairman is said to have also attracted interests within the Board of Directors.
Three board members are said to be aligned with the two senior managers and have been tasked to initiate process to force out the DG from office while the disgruntled top officials are said to be hell-bent in exposing administrative flaws, corruption allegations and irregular award of multi-billion road construction tenders.
The law demands that the chairman be tapped from a list of six directors appointed by the Transport Cabinet Secretary from people nominated by particular organisations and must not be public officers.
The six organisations include a tertiary learning institution, the institution of Engineers of Kenya, Law Society of Kenya, Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya, Institute of Surveyors of Kenya and the Kenya Association of Manufacturers.
“A non-executive chairman shall be appointed by the President from amongst…six other persons, not being public officers, appointed by the ministers,” says the Kenya Roads Act.
The Ethics Act defines a public officer as permanent or part-time employee in counties, national government, Parliament and institutions such as public universities.
Effectively, Wangai’s appointment as chair of Kenha is in breach of the law given his role as a civil engineering lecture at JKUAT.
“This is the epitome of impunity and display of utter disregard of the law for the persons that the law expressly bars from sitting in the board of Kenha to be appointed as chairman of the same board and illegally serves at taxpayers’ expense,” said Adera & Kenyatta Advocates in a letter to Macharia adds in part.
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