A section of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s new appointments now hang in the balance after Activist Okiya Omtatah moved to court to stop the appointments.

Omtatah has moved to court to sue the Chief Administrative Secretary and PS positions stating that they were handpicked rather than being recommended by Public Service Commission (PSC).

The lawyer argued that the position of Chief Administrative Secretary was reached without public participation.

PSC is required to advertise for the slots, shortlist candidates, and conduct interviews before finally submitting names for hiring. It is the same procedure for recruiting Principal Secretaries (PSs) since they are not vetted by Parliament.

However, National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale, explained that the right procedure was followed since the President consulted the PSC.

On Friday President Uhuru Kenyatta named the Cabinet Secretaries, PSs and Chief Administrative Secretary who will serve in his government during his second Term in office.

Speaking at State House, the Head of State made some changes with some former Cabinet secretaries being dropped while others joining.

The Appointed Chief Administrative Secretaries are:

Public Service, Youth and Gender Affairs – Rachel Shebesh.

Devolution and ASAL areas – Hussein Dado

Defence – (TBA)

Foreign Affairs and International Trade – Ababu Namwamba

Water and Sanitation – Winnie Guchu

Transport and Infrastructure Development – Chris Obure

Treasury and Planning – Nelson Gaichuhie

Interior and Coordination of National Government – Patrick Ntutu

Agriculture and Irrigation – Andrew Tuimor

Health – Rashid Aman –

Tourism and Wildlife – (TBA)

Education – Simon Kachapin

Lands – Gideon Mung’aro

Labour and Social Protection – Abdul Bahari

East African Community and Northern Corridor development – Ken Obura

ICT (TBA)