President William Ruto has suffered another setback after the High Court ruled that he violated the Constitution when he appointed former Chief Justice David Maraga to lead the Police Reforms Taskforce.
The ruling was delivered on Thursday by Justice Bahati Mwamuye, who stated that the president made a mistake by creating a task force that ended up taking over the responsibilities of the National Police Service Commission (NPSC).
According to the judge, President Ruto cannot use his powers as the head of state to transfer the roles of an independent commission to another body.
“The President cannot, under the guise of executive authority, take away the functions of an independent commission and hand them over to a task force.
Such an action is both illegal and unconstitutional,” Justice Mwamuye declared.
President Ruto had formed the 23-member task force in December 2022. Its main goal was to examine the working conditions and welfare of police officers and recommend ways to improve their terms of service. The task force was officially gazetted and was led by former Chief Justice David Maraga.
The responsibilities of the task force included identifying any legal, policy, and administrative issues affecting service delivery in both the National Police Service and the Kenya Prisons Service. It was also tasked with recommending reforms to improve the efficiency and performance of these security institutions.
The team concluded its work and submitted a comprehensive report to President Ruto on October 5, 2023. Among the proposals in the report were suggestions to increase salaries for officers working in the homeland department.
It also suggested that new police officers should be recruited either as constables or cadets, with the NPSC responsible for deciding how the recruitment should be done.
This latest ruling is part of a growing list of legal setbacks facing the president. Earlier this year, on February 6, the High Court suspended the operations of another of his initiatives—the Presidential Taskforce on Human Resources for Health.
That task force had been formed in July 2024 to tackle ongoing problems in the healthcare system.
Then, on March 6, the court again ruled against the president by declaring the Presidential Taskforce on Health Audit unconstitutional.
The judge found that this task force had taken over the role of the Kenya Human Resources Advisory Council without legal basis.
The court not only declared the task force illegal but also suspended all its operations, effectively shutting it down.
These repeated court rulings highlight increasing judicial resistance to what has been viewed as President Ruto’s overreach in forming task forces that interfere with independent constitutional commissions.
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