Clarification on Kitui Municipality Board Nominees: No Appointments Made Yet

CLEARING THE AIR ON KITUI MUNICIPALITY BOARD NOMINEES

From the very outset, let us begin by clarifying that as at now, there is no appointment that has been done with regards to the members of Kitui Municipality Board, unlike what a section of bloggers are sensationally reporting trying to insinuate that a Chief Officer has flouted the law for allegedly appointing some people.

Secondly, when the board is finally constituted, it will play a crucial role in rendering the much needed services to the people of Kitui town and indeed the entire county. As such, it is important that the public is fed with the correct information, instead of sleaze and propaganda that is aimed at fear mongering and mudslinging.

And here is the true position on the matter.There is widespread misinformation out there that the Chief Officer for Urban Development has allegedly appointed members of Kitui Municipality Board. This is not true. The CO has no power to appoint.

What the CO did was to write an intent to recruit members of the Kitui Municipality Board, which communication was rightfully done through the County Secretary for onward transmission to the County Public Service Board.

There is also misinformation out there from biased bloggers than the CO does not have such powers. That is not true. The CO has such powers, drawn directly from the County Government Act and to be specific section 63 of the Act – which reads as follows.

Section 63: Powers of the County Public Service Board to make appointments,

1)Except as provided for in the constitution or legislation, the County Public Service Board has the power to make appointments including promotions in respect of offices in the county public service board.

2)The power of the County Public Service Board under subsection (1) shall be exercised (a) at the request of the relevant County Chief Officer of the department to which the appointment is to be made.

Above is the section that gave COs have power to write the intent to recruit members of Kitui Municipality Board. The CO did not contravene any law or act outside the law. He was well within the law and this Act has been used by Chief Officers elsewhere.

Indeed, the same procedure was followed when recruiting members of Mwingi Municiplaity Board who were subsequently vetted by the County Assembly’s Appointments committee and finally appointed by the Governor.There was no hue and cry as is happening now and your guess is as good as ours.

There is also misinformation out there from a section of misinformed bloggers that the CO sidestepped his minister. Actually, some of these misleading sentiments are emanating from the County Assembly’s Minority Leader Alex Nganga.
This piece of information is totally misleading and here is the reason.

For starters, where did Hon Nganga get such a complaint from? Waziri did not register such a complaint anywhere – so on whose brief is Hon Nganga acting?
The Waziri was not among the officers invited by the Assembly’s Appointment Committee on the controversial matter.

It is therefore save to say that Hon Nganga has manufactured that imaginary complaint to try and create bad blood between the CO and his boss(es) who are working seamlessly. Hon Nganga is better advised to stop misleading the public, and more so gullible bloggers.

Trying to associate the COs with the said entity is a malicious scheme to puncture his credibility.

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