A fresh dispute now beckons in the coalition government after Immigration Minister Otieno Kajwang refused to allow the suspension of JKIA officer involved in drama concerning Chief Justice Willy Mutunga.
Kajwang said that the person to be blamed for the episode in which Mutunga was temporary impeded from leaving the country is Head of the Civil Service Francis Kimemia. Kajwang said that he would not allow the JKIA officer to be used as scapegoat;
“My officer interpreted that circular the way it should have been interpreted. The person who wrote that circular is the one who should be blamed and he should stop politicising this issue,” he said.
“Why should my officer be suspended? What crime has he committed? And if you want to suspend my officer, tell me; don’t do it by the roadside. Public servants are employed by the Public Service Commission not by some amorphous security body,” he added.
Kajwang further said that he had not heard of the circular at the centre of the dispute which compelled senior civil servants who wanted to leave the country to seek Kimemia’s consent;
“I was not aware of that circular because I would have advised that we make it clear. The government has different arms and you cannot make the Executive a supervisor of other arms of government,” he argued.
