Court Suspends Appointment of Francis Muthaura as KRA Chairman by President Kenyatta

The Employment and Labour Court has suspended the appointment of former head of Public Service Francis Muthaura as the new chairman of the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA).

In a ruling on Tuesday, Justice Byrum Onganya suspended the appointment of Muthaura alongside Charles Makori Omanga, Mukesh Shah, Leonard Ithau and Susan Mudhune to KRA board, pending the hearing determination of a case filed by activist Okiya Omtatah.

In his case, Omtatah argues that President Kenyatta violated the Constitution in appointing the five to the KRA board.

“The president’s decision to handpick and appoint people to public offices is a nullity in law to the extent that it is inconsistent with express provisions of the Constitution of Kenya and statute which require public offices to be filled through open, fair, competitive, and merit-based but inclusive processes of recruiting and appointing persons into offices in the public service,” Omtatah argues.

The President made the appointments in a special gazette notice dated May 25th.

“In exercise of the powers conferred by section 7 (3) of the State Corporation Act and section 6(2) (a) of the Kenya Revenue Authority Act, I, Uhuru Kenyatta, President and Commander-in-chief of the Kenya Defence Forces, appoint Francis K. Muthaura to be the chairperson of the Kenya Revenue Authority,” the President stated in the gazette notice.