PSC halts hiring of Registrar of political parties

The Public Service Commission (PSC) has cancelled an advert placed last week calling on applicants to fill the positions of the Registrar and Assistant Registrars of Political Parties.

In an advert appearing in Thursday’s dailies, PSC Secretary Mrs Alice Otwala announced that the advertisement for the Registrar and three assistants had been cancelled without giving details.

The cancellation came as the High Court issued an order temporarily halting the process. Read (PSC to recruit Registrar of political parties)

Successful applicants would have replaced Mrs Lucy Ndung'u who has been holding the position in an acting capacity since last year.

Two civil society activists, Samson Ojiayo and Richard Mwenda on Thursday through Kamunda Njue Advocates were granted temporary orders-halting the recruitment process.

The matter before Justice David Majanja who certified the same as urgent and granted the interim orders sought and set the hearing for November 7.

The two activists argue that the action by PSC to advertise the positions is illegal as there is no provision in law for it to be involved in the process.

They argue that when revising the Political Parties Act, Parliament deleted the section that had envisaged the recruitment process to be carried out by PSC.

They argue that PSC has no role in the recruitment process and instead the Constitution and the Political Parties Act envisage the Constitution of a selection panel to carry out the process.

According to the sixth schedule of the Political Parties Act, the PSC will following the conclusion of the interviews for the position of Registrar, nominate and forward to the President the names of three nominees for appointment and the names of nine nominees for appointment to the office of Assistant Registrar.

The President is to within seven days of receipt of the names of the nominees, nominate one of the three persons for appointment as Registrar and three persons for appointment as Assistant Registrar and forward the names of the nominees to Parliament for approval.

Parliament is to within fourteen days of the receipt of the names of the nominees consider them and approve or reject the nominations.

Some of the functions of the Registrar include to register, regulate, monitor, investigate and supervise political parties to ensure compliance with the Political Parties Act.

The Registrar also administers the Political Parties Fund and ensures the publication of audited annual accounts of political parties.

The Registrar also maintains a register of political parties and the symbols of the political parties and also ensure and verify that no person is a member of more than one political party.