Govt advertises Registrar of Political Parties vacancy

The government has finally advertised the position of Registrar of Political Parties, nearly 10 years after the law came into force.

In an advert in the Daily Nation on Friday, the Public Service Commission (PSC) also invited applicants to fill three positions for Assistant Registrar of Political Parties.

PSC wants those interested in the job to submit their applications by Thursday, May 21, 2020.

“Each application should be accompanied with detailed CV, a copy of the National Identity card and certified copies of academic and professional certificates,” says the advert.

Candidates wishing to fill the positions must hold a degree from any university recognised in Kenya and have 15 years’ experience either financial matters, management, political science, law, governance or public administration.

The three assistant registrars will deputise the RPP in the areas of registration, regulatory, monitoring and investigating and supervising political parties to ensure compliance with the law.

The Office of the Registrar of Political Parties is established through the Political Parties Act which was promulgated in 2011 in line with the requirement of the 2010 Constitution.

Since then, the office has been held by both Lucy Ndung’u and Anne Nderitu in acting capacity. Ms Ndung’u holds the record as the person who acted in a position for the longest time. She was the first holder of the office, from 2011 until 2018 when she was appointed to the board of the Commission on Administrative Justice (CAJ).

Ms Nderitu was picked to act in August 2018.  Until her appointment Ms Ann Nderitu was the manager in charge of electoral training at the Independent Electoral Boundaries Commission (IEBC).

Those who will be appointed will serve for a non-renewable term of six years.

This is the second time the PSC has advertised the jobs. The first was in October 2012 but the process was cancelled after it was challenged in court by some civil society groups.

Two civil society activists, Samson Ojiayo and Richard Mwenda, had argued that the action by PSC to advertise the positions was illegal as there was no provision in law for it to be involved in the process.

They argued that when revising the Political Parties Act, Parliament deleted the section that had envisaged the recruitment process to be carried out by PSC.

They argued that PSC has no role in the recruitment process and instead the Constitution and the Political Parties Act envisage the Constitution of a selection panel to carry out the process.

According to the sixth schedule of the Political Parties Act, the PSC will following the conclusion of the interviews for the position of Registrar, nominate and forward to the President the names of three nominees for appointment and the names of nine nominees for appointment to the office of Assistant Registrar.