Court halts NSSF bid to recruit new managers
The courts have halted a move by the National Social Security Fund NSSF to recruit new managers to run the Fund.
In his ruling, Employment and Labour Relations Judge Jacob Gakeri stated that the human resource guidelines currently being used by the pension fund to recruit are not ratified by the Public Service Commission.
“The Public Service Commission is the only body with constitutional authority to approve human resource instruments of State corporations and other State bodies.
The NSSF Board of Trustees cannot, therefore, proceed to hire the managers without approval from PSC,” ruled Gakeri.
Justice Gakeri ruled that employees must be accountable in the recruitment process funded by taxpayers’ money.
He also directed the NSSF Board of Trustees to present their human resource instruments to the PSC within 21 days for approval before they can commence recruitment of new managers.
“I find that the NSSF Board of Trustees failed in their duty to uphold the rule of law and did not comply with the constitution in the preparation and approval of their human resource instruments.
Therefore, they cannot proceed with the recruitment without necessary approval,” he ruled.
NSSF advertised for the positions of general managers to oversee its operations.
Still, the Consumers Federation of Kenya (Cofek) moved to court to stop the recruitment on account that there were no legal procedures to guide the process.
