Meeting seeks way forward after High Court disbands CA board
What you need to know:
- Disbandment of the team leaves a constitutional vacuum, creating a new hitch to recruitment of a new director general who is to take over office in August.
- The CA board was gazetted on May 30, 2014 by Dr Matiang’i from a list of 14 names and took over office as the authority went through rebranding from the former Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK).
- The disbanded team comprises Mr Wilbert Choge, Mr Ken Nyaundi, Ms Grace Munjuri, Prof Levy Obonyo, Ms Hellen Kinoti, Ms Beatrice Opee and Mr Peter Mutie.
The government will Monday hold a crisis meeting to seek the way forward following last week’s decision by the High Court to disband the Communications Authority of Kenya board.
Board chairman Gituku Ngene — who was not affected by the ruling — said he would meet with ICT Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i and Attorney-General Githu Muigai.
“We have been away and this decision was made on Friday evening; We have not had time for the people concerned to have a meeting. I am trying to set up a meeting tomorrow, all parties will sit down and decide whether to appeal or not,” said Mr Gituku who was in Kigali for the East Africa Communications Organisation (EACO) ICT exhibition at the time of the High Court ruling on Friday evening.
The High Court said that seven members of the panel were irregularly appointed and dismissed them from office.
The court order took the telecoms regulators off guard as Mr Gituku was in Kigali. CA Director-General Francis Wangusi and Dr Matiang’i were attending the World Summit on the Information Society (WISIS) forum in Geneva. They are now back in the country.
Disbandment of the team leaves a constitutional vacuum, creating a new hitch to recruitment of a new director general who is to take over office in August.
Hiring for the position is already behind the set time since a low number of applicants led to re-advertisement.
The application deadline had been set for May 15, following re-advertisement, the deadline has now been pushed to June 10. Recruitment is expected to end on August 22.
The CA board was gazetted on May 30, 2014 by Dr Matiang’i from a list of 14 names and took over office as the authority went through rebranding from the former Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK).
The disbanded team comprises Mr Wilbert Choge, Mr Ken Nyaundi, Ms Grace Munjuri, Prof Levy Obonyo, Ms Hellen Kinoti, Ms Beatrice Opee and Mr Peter Mutie.
PROMPTED RULING
The ruling was prompted by the secretary-general of the ICT Association of Kenya, Mr Kamotho Njenga who filed a complaint on October 24, 2014.
The CA board has been responsible for decisions that have sparked public protests in the recent past. Among them the digital migration, which saw signals of three broadcasters switched off for 19 days.
