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Former Public Service Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria has debunked lawyer Nelson Havi’s statement that all his former colleagues dismissed by President William Ruto are ineligible to hold public office.

In a rebuttal, Moses Kuria argued that Havi’s argument cannot be applicable since the dismissed Cabinet Secretaries were not taken through a disciplinary process.

In his counter-argument, Kuria further told Havi that the Cabinet Secretaries were dismissed through a class action with no charges levelled against them.

The former Public Service CS indicated that if Havi’s argument was merited then any person dismissed from work would not qualify to be eligible to receive a certificate of good conduct.

“As lawyers of (dis)repute, you need to read whatever provisions against the tenets of fair administrative action. If your ‘scholarly’ arguments are to hold water, the affected persons then have to be taken through a disciplinary process or a court martial. Not a class action,” Kuria argued.

“Otherwise, if you are dismissed as a clerk at a telecommunication company you don’t even qualify for a certificate of good conduct,” he added.

The former Law Society of Kenya (LSK) President had lauded President William Ruto for gazetting the dismissal of Cabinet Secretaries arguing that they should not be allowed to hold any public office.

In his argument, Havi indicated that their dismissal is equivalent to an impeachment.

“Well done again, President. The dismissal from office of the Cabinet Secretaries means that they ineligible to hold any public office forever: appointive or elective. They are in the same category as impeached Governors or Judges found unsuitable to serve. That is the law,” Havi wrote on his X account.

Mixed reactions

However, his argument attracted mixed reactions from a section of Kenyans online.

Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Abraham Korir Sing’Oei reacted to Havi’s statement insisting that his argument cannot suffice.

“Difficult to accept your interpretation president Nelson Havi. The circumstances under which the “class” was “dismissed” are canvassed in the preamble to the Gazette Notice. None of the members of the class have been impugned so as to render them permanently infirm to serve. That is not to say the political cost of any reappointment is insignificant; a calculus I am certain the president is conscious of,” Sing’Oei wrote on X.

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