A court in Mombasa has temporarily stopped the ongoing recruitment for the new Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) Managing Director pending the hearing and determination of an application filed by a Mombasa based lobby group.
The Commission for Human Rights and Justice had filed a petition seeking to stop the exercise until a new board of directors is constituted to oversee the process.
The lobby through it's Executive Director Julius Ogogoh argues that the board as constituted cannot be trusted to recruit another MD questioning it's integrity as it failed to act tame corruption at the parastatal.
In his orders Justice James Rika said ''Pending hearing and determination of the application filed by the petitioner inter parties, the respondents are barred from conducting interviews for the position of Managing Director KPA''
Adding'' In the interim, the court agrees that the KPA is not hampered in its operations by keeping the position vacant until the hearing inter parties. There is an acting Managing Director who in the admission of the respondents has a mandate of up to September 2020. The KPA has a General Managers for its various departments and would certainly not come to a standstill if the interim order of injunction issued'.
The judge also ordered the Dock workers union joins the petition as an interested party.
The case will be mentioned on 17th June 2020.
Earlier, Ogogoh had written to the KPA board chairman Joseph Kibwana seeking publication in the press of the list of all the applicants for the position.
