The High Court of Kenya has thrown the management of the multi-billion-shilling Kenya Electricity Transmission Company Limited (KETRACO) into deep uncertainty. In an urgent ruling, the court issued sweeping conservatory orders suspending the recent gazettement and appointment of three independent directors by Energy and Petroleum Cabinet Secretary Opiyo Wandayi.
Citizen Digital
The judicial freeze responds to a constitutional petition that exposes a sharp, embarrassing contradiction between two powerful government ministries: the National Treasury and the Ministry of Energy.
Citizen Digital
With KETRACO currently in the middle of a high-stakes search for a substantive Chief Executive Officer, this legal roadblock threatens to paralyze decision-making at the country’s grid infrastructure manager.
The Core of the Contradiction: Treasury vs. Ministry of Energy
The legal battle stems from what civil society groups and legal experts have called a complete subversion of fair administrative action.
Citizen Digital
On May 18, 2026, the National Treasury publicly advertised vacancies for Independent Directors in various Government-Owned Enterprises, specifically naming KETRACO. The advertisement, aligned with Section 10 of the newly minted Government-Owned Enterprises Act, 2025, invited qualified members of the public to apply competitively, setting a firm deadline for May 29, 2026, at 5:00 PM.
Consumers Federation of Kenya (COFEK)
Yet, on that exact same deadline day, a parallel track was completed behind closed doors. Energy Cabinet Secretary Opiyo Wandayi quietly published Kenya Gazette Notice Nos. 8032 and 8033, appointing:
Citizen Digital
+ 1
Mercylinnete Rotich (Reappointed for a 3-year term)
Consumers Federation of Kenya (COFEK)
Janerose Gatwiri (Reappointed for a 3-year term)
Consumers Federation of Kenya (COFEK)
Nick Ochola (Newly appointed for a 3-year term)
Consumers Federation of Kenya (COFEK)
THE RECRUITMENT CLASH
National Treasury Ministry of Energy
┌───────────────────────┐ ┌───────────────────────┐
│ Published public ads │ │ Secretly bypassed standard │
│ inviting competitive │ │ channels to push through │
│ applications from │ │ immediate appointments│
│ qualified citizens. │ │ via Gazette notices. │
└──────────┬────────────┘ └───────────┬───────────┘
│ │
└──────────────┬───────────────┘
▼
[HIGH COURT INTERVENTION]
The process is frozen due to
procedural irregularities.
The overlapping timeline forms the basis of the petition filed by activist Issa Elanyi Chamao. The lawsuit points out the absurdity of inviting ordinary citizens to apply for roles under a competitive state panel while the Ministry of Energy had already handpicked the winners before the application deadline even closed.
Citizen Digital
What the High Court’s Conservatory Orders Mean
Recognizing the urgency and potential damage to public trust, the High Court certified the application as urgent and issued immediate, strict orders:
Citizen Digital
Immediate Suspension: The operation and implementation of Gazette Notice Nos. 8032 and 8033 are frozen pending a full hearing.
Citizen Digital
Invalidation of Resolutions: Any board resolutions, approvals, or policy decisions made by or in the physical presence of the three disputed appointees from May 29, 2026, are suspended.
Citizen Digital
Operational Bar: All three individuals are strictly restrained from acting, executing duties, or participating in any official board affairs on behalf of KETRACO.
Citizen Digital
The respondents—including the Ministry of Energy and the Attorney General—have been granted seven days to file their formal defense. The matter is set to return to court for a mention on June 24, 2026.
Citizen Digital
+ 1
The Dangerous Domino Effect on KETRACO’s CEO Recruitment
The timing of this boardroom freeze could not be worse for Kenya’s energy sector. KETRACO is currently tangled in an active, highly contentious recruitment process to hire a substantive Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer.
Capital FM
The CEO hiring process was already facing legal headwinds. In late May 2026, the Consumers Federation of Kenya (COFEK) filed a separate lawsuit attempting to halt the recruitment. COFEK accused the KETRACO board of creating “illegal job requirements”—such as demanding a mandatory Master’s degree and 15 years of experience—which exceeded the basic statutory thresholds established in the Government-Owned Enterprises Act.
Capital FM
+ 1
The Governance Trap: With the High Court now suspending three key board members and freezing all resolutions made in their presence, the legality of the entire board is compromised. An improperly constituted board lacks the legal authority to interview, select, or confirm a new CEO. If they proceed, any executive appointment they make will be highly vulnerable to future lawsuits.
Citizen Digital
A Pattern of Institutional Instability
This is the second major legal battle over KETRACO’s board structure in 2026 alone.
In February 2026, activist Benjamin Okumu successfully obtained a court order halting board reappointments, alleging severe violations of national diversity and claiming that 63% of KETRACO’s senior executive committee was dominated by a single ethnic community.
allAfrica.com
In March 2026, the state caught a lucky break when High Court Judge John Chigiti struck out that petition on a technicality—discovering the petitioner’s lawyer was a full-time public officer at IPOA and barred from private practice.
Standard Newspaper
While the government used that technicality to clear the board’s path in March, this new June petition forces the court to confront the substantive issue: Can a Ministry run a closed-door appointment process while a competitive public window is actively advertised?
Consumers Federation of Kenya (COFEK)
Why This Case Matters for All Kenyan Professionals
The implications of this High Court case extend far beyond the energy sector. It challenges a troubling trend where state corporations treat public recruitment ads as cosmetic compliance checklists while the actual jobs are handed out via political networks.
When a state entity acts as though a public deadline is an afterthought, it sends a damaging message to the public. It suggests that applying for state positions on merit is an exercise in futility and that positions are filled long before the public ever sees an advertisement.
Consumers Federation of Kenya (COFEK)
By stepping in to enforce Articles 47 (Fair Administrative Action) and 232 (Values and Principles of Public Service) of the Constitution, the High Court is re-establishing a clear line: executive discretion does not overrule statutory transparency.
External Resources and Deeper Context
Citizen Digital
To better understand the scale of the ongoing friction regarding public sector oversight, see this detailed breakdown of the LSK and Civil Society Petitions on State Appointments. The video provides crucial background context on the wider legal pushback against controversial appointments and structural changes happening across Kenya’s state agencies in 2026.
