Presidential advisers, including David Ndii, can now attend Cabinet meetings after a Nairobi court dismissed a petition seeking to block them.
On Wednesday, August 14, High Court Judge Lawrence Mugambi ruled that President William Ruto is at liberty to invite experts to Cabinet meetings to advise on given matters.
According to Justice Mugambi, there are no laws preventing the president from seeking advice during Cabinet meetings.
“The Cabinet should retain the power to make such discretionary invitations. Neither the Constitution nor any law that I am aware of expressly bars the Cabinet or the President from seeking counsel for purposes of having the Cabinet benefit from experts before making policy decisions on a matter before it,” Justice ruled.
However, he also added that permanent attendance of the non-cabinet members would contravene the Constitution.
“I do not therefore think that it is the business of this Court to interpret that legal gap in a manner that constrains the discretion of the Cabinet or even the President on an internal operational matter within the Executive Branch,” he added.
On July 3, 2023, a petition was filed by Walter Dzuya seeking to bar David Ndii and three others from attending Cabinet meetings.
The others named in the petition were former Kakamega senator Cleophas Malala, Monica Juma, and Harriette Chiggai.
The petitioner argued that their presence in the meetings was unconstitutional, as they were not Cabinet Secretaries as required by Article 152 of the Constitution and did not align with national values and principles of governance, such as transparency, accountability, and the rule of law.
“The purported inclusion of Malala, Ndii, Juma and Chiggai to the cabinet is invalid, null and void ab initio as it contravenes the mandatory constitutional provisions of 2 (1) (2), 3, 10, 129, 130, 131, 132, 152, 153, 154, 156, and 258 of the Constitution which underpins the substantive and procedural constitutional requirements thereof,' the petition reads.
At the time, David Ndii was serving as the President's Chief Economic Advisor, Monica Juma as the National Security Advisor, Harriette Chiggai as the Advisor on Women's Rights, and Cleophas Malala as the Secretary-General of the UDA party.
The petition stated that the Constitution limits Cabinet members to the President, Deputy President, Attorney General, and between 14 and 22 Cabinet Secretaries.
“The inclusion of the four was done without the involvement of Parliament, the same insulates them from oversight as provided in Article 95 (5) of the constitution, the same being null and void,” part of the petition reads.
