Activist petitions high court to block ODM officials' cabinet appointments

A human rights activist has petitioned the high court to stop the appointment of Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) officials Wycliffe Oparanya, Hassan Joho, Opiyo Wandayi, and John Mbadi into the cabinet by President William Ruto.

The Commission on Human Rights and Justice's executive director, Julius Ogogoh, claims that if the opposition aligns itself with the administration it is tasked with supervising, Kenyans will suffer.

Oparanya and Joho who are ODM deputy party leaders have been nominated as the cabinet secretaries for Cooperatives and Mining and Blue Economy respectively.

Mbadi who is the ODM party's national chairman is proposed to be the cabinet secretary for National Treasury and planning while Minority leader Opiyo Wandayi has been nominated for the lucrative Energy docket.

In his petition, Ogogoh claims that the opposition will have failed to fulfill its responsibility of checks and balances both inside and outside the National Assembly (NA).

"Should (the four) be appointed into the cabinet, the opposition shall be conflicted and shall not be able to carry out its mandate of offering checks and balances on operations of the government thereby there shall be no oversight on the operations of the government," states the activist.

"The constitution of Kenya has clear edits on the role of the opposition in the NA and once that duty is taken away, or diluted, then the people of Kenya who donated their power stand disadvantaged."

He says the Azimio One Kenya Coalition and ODM have a constitutional and Parliamentary duty to offer checks and balances in particular to oversight actions of the government and as a consequence, their members are the persons chairing public investments and Public Accounts Committees of the NA.

The activist says according to the Parliamentary standing orders 205 and 206, it is the members of the opposition in the National Assembly who are eligible to be chairpersons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and Public Investments Committee (PIC), which are vested with authority and power to oversight the operations of the government.

Ogogoh says that due to the doctrine of separation of powers as the opposition coalition, in parliament, Azimio is mandated to oversee the government and therefore cannot be part of that government.

He adds that Kenyans need an opposition that has distanced itself from the government and accuses Ruto of breaking the constitution by picking the three to join his government.

The activist claims that Opiyo's nomination to the cabinet is insensitive and inappropriate given the country's economic situation because it will result in by-elections in his seat, which is not a sensible use of public money.