President William Ruto has suffered a major setback after the high court on Friday quashed the appointment of Emily Mwende Waita,John Kioli,Ummar Omar and George Odera Outa appointment as members of the National Climate Change Council.
In today’s court news, Justice Lawrence Mugambi further barred them from assuming office ruling that their process for nominations was unconstitutional and thus invalid.
In his judgement, Justice Mugambi ruled that there was no stakeholders participation in that nomination process and that the respondent during the hearing were silent on how the public participation was done.
“Nominations were unlawfully…process of nomination of the Emily Mwende Waita,John Kioli,Ummar Omar and George Odera Outa did not comply with the principal of public participation as required by the constitution,”court ruled
The court further gave the committee 90 days to undertake the process in full compliance with the constitution.
The government had argued that the act does not show how to select a nominee from the marginalised community.
However, the petitioners Mt Kenya Network Forum and indigenous People National Steering Committee on climate change (IPNSCCC) disagreed with the argument.
They argued that the civil society organisations working on climate change in Kenya were excluded in the selection of the members of the council.
“It is not clear who amongst the nominees is the representative of the largest civil society organisation working on climate change as it is envisaged in the Council Act or what process was used to select the representative for the civil society as required by the law and the Constitution and whether there was any form of public participation in the selection of the said individuals in accordance with the Public Participation Act,” reads the court papers.
