This archive report was first published on 17 November 2019.
Published on November 17, 2019, the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) has defended the appointment of Mercy Wanjau as the Acting Director General, despite a court ruling.
CA chairman Ngene Gituku stated that Wanjau's position had not been overturned by the court, and that she was in CA to stay.
Gituku appointed Wanjau as the Acting Director General on August 22 to replace Francis Wangusi, whose second term in office expired on the same day.
However, the court had ruled that any purported recruitment of the successor of the Francis Wangusi as director general of the Communications Authority of Kenya was unconstitutional and unlawful.
Gituku claimed that the court conclusion was not referring to the appointment of the Acting Director General, but rather to the job advertisement the authority placed in the local dailies in July 2019 for the position of the director general.
He also dismissed reports that Wangusi was likely to return to office pending the appointment of a substantive director general.
The court had ruled that ICT Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru had acted unconstitutionally in appointing Mahmoud Noor, Paul Mureithi, Laura Chite and Jackson Kemboi as directors to the CA board.
Wanjau had previously reshuffled the board by appointing Christopher Kemei as the director of the Universal Service Fund, Matano Ndaro as the director for licensing, compliance and standards and Maxwell Mosoti as the acting director for competition, tariffs and market analysis.
