Dagoretti North Member of Parliament Beatrice Elachi has defended the Chief Administrative Secretaries (CAS) positions saying they are important to ministries.
Speaking on Tuesday, July 4 during Citizen TV’s Day Break show, Elachi stated that Cabinet Secretaries tend to focus more on State Departments that they are good at and give less focus to others.
She stated that CASs are important to make sure that all State Departments are working perfectly.
“You need CASs in ministries because for example, we have Public Service and Gender as a ministry, you find like my former boss Margaret Kobia because she was very good at public service you will find many of the things she did align more on public service.
“You will need someone to follow through and find out is anything happening in Gender. You can’t just leave it to the PS because once in a while you will still need the CS to be through and so you come in and assist the CS,” Elachi stated.
The former CAS however stated that the Public Service Commission (PSC) should have clearly stated the mandate of the CAS for better understating.
Elachi further stated that President William Ruto should have appointed 23 CASs instead of adding 27 extra slots.
“What I wish the president did was just to follow through with the 23 CAS positions, that way they won’t be having this problem today because PSC had already done everything for them the way the law stipulates and SRC had done a gazette notice of the salaries at some point,” she added.
The High Court on Monday termed the creation of the 50 CASs unconstitutional noting that the additional 27 CASs did not adhere to the constitutional requirement of public participation.
Justice Kanyi Kimondo went ahead in the ruling to declare the entire component of CAS unconstitutional.
“The newly created office and fresh complement of 50 had to comply with the constitution and the criteria set out earlier in the Okiya Omtatah case, they did not comply, for the avoidance of doubt the entire complement of 50 CASs is therefore unconstitutional,” Justice Kimondo ruled.
By Ezra Nyakundi
Source: https://www.nairobileo.co.ke/
