Energy Cabinet Secretary Monica Juma has revoked her board appointments at the Rural Electrification and Energy Corporation (REREC) after the Attorney-General Kihara Kariuki warned that she had breached the law in excluding representatives from the devolved governments.
Juma has appointed four CoG nominees as directors in the power agency after Kariuki directed her to revoke for the second time an April 20 Kenya Gazette notice that appointed six directors of REREC.
The AG had asked Juma to make fresh board appointments in consultations with the county chiefs to avoid further litigation.
The CS revoked the appointment of the three of the six directors and picked four directors from the devolved governments, including CoG chief executive Mary Mwiti.
“The Cabinet Secretary for Energy appoints…to be members of Rural Electrification and Energy Corporation board. The appointment of Samson Maundu, Henry Rono and Hassan Mohamud Haji is revoked,” said the May 17 Kenya Gazette notice.
The Energy Act of 2019 allows the Cabinet Secretary to appoint three directors and the CoG four.
The six directors were chosen by Juma on April 14 for a three-year term under the Energy Act of 2006, which expired in 2019.
The Energy Act of 2019, which was designed to guide board appointments, permits the cabinet secretary to select three directors and the CoG to recruit four.
The selections were announced on April 14 in the Kenya Gazette.
Curiously, Juma appointed four directors to the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority under the Energy Act of 2019.
CoG’s expanded participation on the Rerec board is the result of modifications to the 2019 law, which expanded the agency’s scope to include collaboration with county governments to deepen electricity connection fundraising, research, and the construction of a renewable energy master plan.
Through the National Government Constituencies Development Fund, the state agency is working with county governments and constituencies to improve rural electricity.
County governments and constituency development funds will cover half of the cost of transporting power to rural areas and retail centre, particularly in dry and semi-arid areas, as part of the agreement.
“By purporting to appoint board members of the interested party using a repealed statute, the cabinet secretary for Energy has subverted the law, acted with impunity and bestowed on herself powers that she does not have, given her failure to take into account the role of the [CoG] in the appointment of board members,” Martin Njoroge, an activist said.
The legal struggle comes only weeks after Juma lost his bid to overturn the previous board’s decision to hire 230 personnel to meet Rerec’s broader mission in the counties, which expired in February.
Juma attempted to halt the appointment of the 230 workers, accusing them of nepotism and illegally raising Rerec staff numbers without a budget.
The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission found no abnormalities, but the Energy Ministry refused to hire anyone, triggering a lawsuit and State House intervention.
On November 8, Juma petitioned Head of Public Service Joseph Kinyua to keep the parastatals under her ministry frozen.
“The recruitment should, however, only be undertaken upon alignment with the approved human resource instruments and possession of written confirmation of requisite budgets for the recruitment and sustainability thereof from the National Treasury [as well as] existence of board resolutions approving the recruitment,” he said.