The management of Kenya’s electricity transmission agency has been sued over allegations of biased hiring practices.
A petitioner moved to the High Court seeking urgent intervention over what he terms a deliberate and unconstitutional ethnic imbalance in the senior management of the Kenya Electricity Transmission Company Limited (KETRACO).
In a constitutional petition filed at the Constitutional and Human Rights Division in Nairobi, Benjamin Okumu accuses the KETRACO Board of Directors of violating the Constitution by overseeing recruitment and appointments that allegedly favour one ethnic community at the expense of national diversity.
SINGLE ETHNIC GROUP
The petition argues that following the appointment of the current Board, several senior executives were removed and replaced within a short period, resulting in five out of nine top executive positions being occupied by individuals from a single ethnic community. This, he says, represents about 63 per cent of KETRACO’s Executive Committee of Management.
Okumu contends that this pattern violates Articles 10, 27 and 232 of the Constitution, which require inclusiveness, equality, non-discrimination and representation of Kenya’s diverse communities in public service.
He further avers that the recruitment of the Managing Director and General Managers is conducted exclusively by the Board through its Human Resource and Remuneration Committee, and that the uniformity of outcomes raises serious constitutional concerns regarding ethnic bias and exclusion.
RECRUITMENT PROCESS
The petitioner, however, does not accuse any individual appointee of personal wrongdoing. Instead, he challenges the recruitment process and its outcomes, which he says are constitutionally defective.
The court has been informed that the alleged purge of senior staff has had serious operational and financial consequences for the State corporation, including loss of institutional memory and exposure to garnishee proceedings by a foreign contractor over a long-running dispute.
According to court documents, the instability has triggered panic measures within KETRACO, including rushed financial decisions that risk public funds and threaten the operations of the critical electricity transmission agency.
COMPLIANCE
The petitioner has also underscored the urgency of the matter, noting that the tenure of the current KETRACO Board is set to lapse in February 2026. He warns of a real risk that Board members could be reappointed or have their terms extended before the constitutional questions raised are resolved.
He is seeking conservatory orders to stop any reappointment or extension of the current Board’s tenure pending the hearing and determination of the petition.
Among the remedies sought are declarations that the appointments violate the Constitution, orders quashing the impugned appointments, and directions compelling KETRACO to reconstitute its senior management in compliance with constitutional principles.
He has further asked the court to direct oversight bodies — including the Public Service Commission, the National Cohesion and Integration Commission, and the Commission on Administrative Justice — to conduct an independent audit of diversity and inclusiveness at KETRACO and report back to the court.
