Less than week after his contract lapsed at the telecoms industry regulator, Communications Authority of Kenya (CA), Francis Wangusi received a reprieve today after the Employment and Labour Relations Court extended the status quo allowing the outgoing Director General to remain in office till September 10, 2019 when the matter is set to come up for mention before court.
Wangusi’s contract officially came to an end on August 21, 2019, a situation that led the CA board chair Ngene Gituku to announce that CA’s Director of Legal Services, Mercy Wanjau, would take over and hold the position in an acting capacity.
(TOP: Francis Wangusi, the outgoing CA boss who’s been directed by the court to remain in office till September 10, 2019).
Even as Wangusi contract lapsed, there was no certainty on the constitution of the CA board following repeal of Section 6B of the KICA law which was meant to have put in place a board that would meet the requisite threshold of Article 34(5) of the Constitution without an independent selection panel.
In prevailing circumstances, the consumer lobby, Consumers Federation of Kenya (COFEK), took the matter to court leading the Labour Court to issue orders stopping any recruitment of the Director General before its petition can be heard and determined.
But even as the court extended the status quo at CA, allowing the outgoing Director General Francis Wangusi to remain in office till September 10, 2019 when the matter is set to come up for mention before court, the CA board chair Ngene Gituku has also issued a statement announcing that Mercy Wanjau, the acting Director General appointed last week on August 22, 2019, will “continue to discharge the duties of the Office in acting basis”.
“This is to confirm that the issue came up at the Employment and Labour Relations Court today, Tuesday August 27, 2019. The court ordered and gave directions that the ‘status quo’ relating to the recruitment of the Director General be extended. The court specifically pronounced itself on the import and effect of the status quo, to mean that it was in relation to the recruitment of the Director General and not the extension of the term of the Office of the former Director General,” noted the the CA board chair in the media release, adding that “the recruitment process will remain on hold as directed by the court.”
Immediately after Mercy Wanjau was announced as the new interin DG at CA last week, Francis Wangusi reportedly told the media that he’d not hand over to the new DG, noting that noting that “a few people with selfish interests” were forcing a person to head such a vital government institution.
Mercy Wanjau, a commercial lawyer, has held various positions at the CA for over 13 years.
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