Uhuru headed for yet another clash with Judiciary over transfer of KMC to Ministry of Defence

 

President Uhuru Kenyatta is headed for a collision course with the Judiciary once again in the militarization of the Kenya Meat Commission (KMC).

The President is on Monday set to officiate the official take over of KMC in Athi River by the Ministry of Defence — this despite a court order quashing the transfer of KMC from the Agriculture Ministry to Defense Ministry.

The order also granted the government 90 days to revert KMC back to the Ministry of Agriculture describing the president’s decision as unconstitutional.

The President through Executive Order number 3 of 2020 transferred the moribund loss making KMC from the Agriculture Ministry to the Ministry of Defence.

In a High Court judgement of February 2021, the court ruled the transfer of KMC to the Defence Ministry was in violation of Article 10 of the Constitution on public participation — the court declared there was no public participation in the transfer decision and as such, the High Court declared the move unconstitutional consequently quashing the president’s Executive Order to transfer KMC from the Agriculture Ministry.

With the president’s decision already effected and budgets allocated from the Agriculture Ministry to the Defence Ministry — the government was given 90 days upon which to reverse the process and have KMC domiciled in the Agriculture Ministry.

The Attorney General’s office in trying to overturn the decision of the High Court filed a notice of appeal on the 24th of February indicating it was dissatisfied with the decision of the High Court judge.

The AG moved further to apply for the setting aside of the the High Court order. In its application, the State Law office claimed that as a result of the transfer, various administrative actions had already been taken and the order returning the Kenya Meat Commission to the Agriculture Ministry will effectively paralyze the operations of KMC — equally the AG argued that the High Court judgement was made in total disregard for and violation of the principle of separation of powers.

Nonetheless, despite filing the application for a stay order, the matter is still pending before the Court of Appeal with no action taken on the government’s appeal as yet.