According to the Gazette Notice, Thomas Kasoa was appointed for six years. However, records clearly state that he was appointed to be a member of the board in 2019 by then-Governor Mike Mbuvi Sonko and his term in office should come to an end in 2025, not 2028 as per the gazette notice. His appointment for a fresh 6-year term is in contravention of County Governments Act Article 58(4) which states that “A member of the board shall hold office for a non-renewable term of six years”
The Immediate Nairobi City County Governor Ann Kananu and former County Assembly Speaker Ben Mutura are on the spot over the illegal appointment of Public Service Board Chairman Thomas Kasoa and three other board members.
Investigations by The Weekly Vision reveal that Mr Thomas Kasoa’s appointment was carried out in contravention of Article 58 of the County Governments Act; the appointment contravened Article 58 (2) which states that “Appointment of the members of the board shall be through a competitive process”.
However, no records are available to show that Mr Kasoa’s recruitment was conducted through a competitive process as the only available document is an advert placed on the county’s website calling on interested candidates to apply.
We have further established that during Kasoa’s recruitment process, he was the acting chairman of the board and has not been able to provide information on how many people applied for the position of chairman, how many people were shortlisted, dates when the interviews were held, the venue where the interviews were held and the names of the panel which conducted the interviews.
His appointment is contained in a gazette Notice No.7492 dated 29th June 2022. According to the Gazette Notice, he was appointed for six years. However, records clearly state that he was appointed to be a member of the board in 2019 by then-Governor Mike Mbuvi Sonko and his term in office should come to an end in 2025, not 2028 as per the gazette notice. His appointment for a fresh 6-year term is in contravention of County Governments Act Article 58(4) which states that “A member of the board shall hold office for a non-renewable term of six years”.
It has also been established that according to the Kenya Gazette dated 29 June 2022, former Kananu appointed Mr Osman G. Abdullahi, Mr Robert Wamaya and Ms Faith K. Kalui to be members of the Board.
The appointment of the three board members was done in contravention of the County Governments Act Article 58(1) (b) which states that the “board shall comprise not less than three but not more than five other members nominated and appointed by the county governor, with the approval of the county assembly. Further, the appointments were done in contravention of Article 58(2) which states that “The appointment of the members of the board shall be through a competitive process”. There are no records to show that they were appointed through a competitive process.
The law requires that board members must be vetted and approved by the county assembly. There are no records to show dates when the County Assembly of Nairobi committee on Labour and Social Welfare vetted the nominees, there is no report of the Labour committee on their vetting and the dates when the committee of the whole house approved the nominees. Further, reports indicate that the County Assembly held a special sitting on 22 June 2022, chaired by House Speaker Benson Mutura and approved the governor’s nominees. However, the three names were sneaked and approved without going through the vetting process as required by law.
