Dagoretti North Member of Parliament Beatrice Elachi while giving her remarks on the High Court ruling that declared the appointment of 50 Chief Administrative Secretaries (CASs) unconstitutional said the CAS positions is not wrong but the name is the problem.
The Dagoretti lawmaker noted that the government should have called the post ‘Advisor’ to avoid the contention around its constitutionality.
“Where the government went wrong was to call it CASs. These are positions that have always been there but under different names, advisors. I wish the government would have just retained that because it has worked for many years it’s only that people have never followed through to know,” she said.
Judges Kanyi Kimondo, Hedwig Ong’udi and Aleem Visram while making the ruling on Monday, July 3 stated that public participation in the creation of the CAS post was only conducted for 23 occupants and the creation of the additional 27 occupants did not adhere to the constitutional requirement of public participation.
While speaking during an interview with Citizen TV on Tuesday, July 4, Elachi argued that ministries need leaders apart from Cabinet Secretaries (CSs) and Principal Secretaries (PSs), to “follow through whether anything is happening in a ministry.”
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“You can’t just leave it to the PS,” she added.
According to Elachi, the Public Service Commission made a mistake of not clearly stating the mandate and role of the CAS.
She further noted that without a CAS, the CS might run a ministry while leaving areas within their docket that is outside their field of expertise.
Moreover, Elachi added that the head of state should have appointed 23 people to fill the posts instead of adding 27 others.
