Court ruling on hiring of KRA Revenue Service Assistants and Graduate Trainees

Judge William Musya Musyoka of High Court at Busia has today ruled that hiring of Revenue Service Assistants by Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) is unconstitutional as it did not meet ethnic diversity.  The Judge also provided a ruling on the hiring of graduate trainees. Below is part of the ruling;

Court ruling on the hiring of KRA Revenue Service Assistants and Graduate Trainees

I have before me is a constitutional cause It seeks enforcement of provisions of the Constitution Article 2 of the Constitution has declared that the Constitution is the supreme law in Kenya, and that anything done, which does not accord with it, would be null and invalid. I am not invited to nullify the recruitment, but to assess whether the process of that recruitment met the standards in Article 232 of the Constitution, as read with the preamble, and Articles 2, 10, 27 and 56 of the Constitution If I find that there was non-compliance the consequence would be that the recruitment was done in a manner that violated the Constitution and would be invalid. My hands are tied. I have found that the recruitment did not accord with Article232(1)(h)(i) of the Constitution and, therefore, that rendered the same unconstitutional.

The final orders, that I shall make in the circumstances, are as follows:

• a. a declaration that the June 2023 recruitment of the 1,406 revenue service assistants was unconstitutional, as it offends the preamble to the Constitution and the provisions of Articles 10, 27, 56 and 232(g)(h)(i) of the Constitution: 
• b. a declaration that the 9th October 2023 advertisement for 600 graduate trainees, to the extent it limits employment opportunities to youth of 28 years, is unconstitutional, as it offends the preamble to the Constitution and Articles 10, 27, 56, 232 and 260 of the Constitution:
• c. an order barring the respondents from recruiting and appointing staff at all levels, until an ethnic diversity and regional balance policy is deployed, giving effect to the values and principles stated in the preamble and Article 232(g)(b)(i) of the Constitution which policy should be in place within 30 days of this order; and
• d. this being public interest litigation, there shall be no order on costs. 

 It is so ordered