Ombudsman now warns State officers on campaigns

Public Service, Youth and Gender Affairs Cabinet Secretary Sicily Kariuki. She among Cabinet secretaries who have been campaigning for the re-election of President Kenyatta. FILE PHOTO | DIANA NGILA | NATION MEDIA GROUP

Public officers engaged in campaigns and using state resources to do so are breaking the law and should lead to the disqualification of the party and the candidate they support, the Ombudsman has said.

In an advisory opinion, the Commission on Administrative Justice, popularly known as the Ombudsman, rubbished the stand by State House on the top civil servants, as well as that of the electoral agency, which had ruled that Cabinet secretaries were exempt from the ban on other officials to campaign.

CSs AND PSs

The officials, the body said, include Cabinet secretaries, principal secretaries and other senior public servants, including those in the counties openly supporting their governors.

“In our view, the question of accountability of public officers should be continuous and not summative to coincide with the electioneering period since this blurs the line between accountability and political campaign,” the Ombudsman's acting chairperson Regina Mwatha said in an apparent reference to the State House claim.

While the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission had cited the Leadership and Integrity Act that it said allows Cabinet secretaries to campaign freely, State House had defended the officials, saying they were only explaining policy.

But in its opinion, the Ombudsman rubbished both arguments.

TAKE ACTION

“The IEBC should take action against any political party or candidate who is proven to have aided or abetted the participation of public officers or use of public resources in political activities,” the Ombudsman said.

“This could include disqualification from contesting the forthcoming General Election on August 8, 2017.”

Dr Mwatha said that her team would monitor the campaigns and report implicated public officers to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and the IEBC for action.

State House spokesman Manoah Esipisu had stirred debate and all-round criticism from the Raila Odinga-led opposition after he supported what has become open and unapologetic campaigns by Cabinet secretaries.

“No, they are not campaigning,” he told journalists at State House on April 2.

INTEGRITY ACT

“They are merely describing the investments made under President Kenyatta and the impact thereof, and why therefore it is important for the President to be re-elected to continue with the task of transforming Kenya.”

He went on: “For us, it is really a question of accountability. It is precisely because public officers are speaking more that the country acknowledges that Kenya is irreversibly transforming.”

Ministers that have openly campaigned for the Jubilee administration are Mwangi Kiunjuri (Devolution), Charles Keter (Energy), Joseph Nkaissery (Interior), Eugene Wamalwa (Water), Sicily Kariuki (Public Service), Fred Matiang’i (Education) and Najib Balala (Tourism).

“An appointed State officer, other than a Cabinet secretary or a member or the county executive committee, shall not act as an agent or further interests of a political party in an election; or manifest support for or opposition to any political party or candidate,” Section 23 of the Leadership and Integrity Act says.

STATE RESOURCES

Hundreds of public officers in the counties are involved in open propagation and use of public resources campaigning for sitting governors.

IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati had opened the floodgates when he said that there was nothing the commission could do about the ministers, arguing that the law protected them.

“Cabinet Secretaries are exempted from the law (against civil servants campaigning). They can propagate party activities,” Mr Chebukati said.

“But the rest of the civil servants are bound by the law and if the reports come to us, we will act. Our enforcement team is ready and will take actions.”

Mr Chebukati also said that there was no way the commission could block a sitting president or governor from using state resources to campaign.

DISQUALIFY

“The law defines what the president, governors can do. They are still in charge of the particular resources they are using (when they campaign),” Mr Chebukati said.

But in its advisory opinion, Dr Mwatha said the Ombudsman had taken a different view, also on the use of state resources.

In fact, the Ombudsman wants the IEBC to disqualify any candidate or political party found to have “aided or abetted participation of public officers or use of public resources in political activities.”

“The participation of public officers and use of public resources in political activities politicise, and create anarchy and patronage in the public service and other appointive positions thereby undermining the Constitution,” Dr Mwatha said in the advisory.

Also, the Ombudsman argued, such activities “engender corruption, abuse of power, rent seeking, and mismanagement of public funds.”