Petitioner moves to court over alleged ethnic bias at 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.

"That currently, five (5) out of eight (8) senior executive positions are held by individuals from a single community, amounting to approximately sixty-three percent (63%) of EXCOM," reads the petition 

The petition claims 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, representing about 63 per cent of the Executive Committee of Management.

The petitioner alleges that one Mercylynate Chepkirui, who heads the KETRACO Board's Human Resource Committee, has enabled the dismissal of non-Kalenjin managers.

" Given the outcome of the recruitment processes, the Petitioner avers that interference, bias and ethnic favouritism by the Chairperson of the Committee and the Board as a whole cannot reasonably be ruled out," the petitioner adds. 

The petitioner further argues that only three (3) non-Kalenjin General Managers are currently serving

were appointed by the previous Board of Directors and have not been subjected to the purge carried out by the current Board since 2024.

Okumu argues 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 maintains 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 about ethnic bias and exclusion.

The petitioner is not accusing any individual appointee of personal wrongdoing, but instead challenges the recruitment process and its outcomes, which he says are constitutionally defective.

The court has been told 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 the court filings, 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.

Okumu has also raised the urgency of the matter, noting that the tenure of the current KETRACO Board is set to lapse in February 2026, with a real risk that 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.