Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah has threatened to sue the Kenya Investment Authority’s board of directors over alleged irregularities in the hiring of the agency’s managing director.
Omtatah claims that a State House operative has been manipulating the process to ensure his personal assistant is appointed to the position. He noted that the position has been advertised five times without being filled, attributing the delays to this alleged interference.
“It is no secret that an unscrupulous individual who works at State House, Nairobi, wants his Personal Assistant, who lacks the requisite basic quali[1]fications, appointed, but your Board of Directors has stood its ground,” says Omtatah.
External influence In a letter to board chairperson Sally Njambi Mahihu, the senator said that while many qualified Kenyans have been applying for the position, the board has refused to conclude the recruitment process due to external influence.
This, he said, has undermined the rule of law and drawn great public interest.
“It is a matter of increasing public notoriety that your organization’s Board of Directors has advertised the vacant position of Managing Director of Kenya Investment Authority four (4) times without filling it,” Omtatah says in a July 1 to the board chairman.
“Now, you are doing it for the fifth time. It is not the case that the position remains vacant because the earlier job adverts did not attract applications.
Far from it. “Many qualified and willing Kenyans have applied for the position every time it has been advertised.” The letter is copied to the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, among other entities. Omtatah claims an outsider has hijacked the hiring process.
Omtatah accused the unnamed State House operative of attempting to secure the position for his personal assistant, who allegedly was not initially shortlisted. He claimed that the operative has been pressuring the board to include his assistant on the list of candidates. Additionally, Omtatah alleged that the board had removed some of the most qualified applicants from the list of candidates to be interviewed.
“It is now a foregone conclusion that the interviews will be a sham and the preferred person will be appointed,” he wrote. “By this letter, I demand that the Board revert to its old shortlist for the best candidate to be appointed.”
