Justice Ong’udi has set 14th November 2022 as the hearing date of Petition E063 of 2021. This is a case filed against the Ministry of Health to account over the loss of funds received from the Global Alliance for Vaccines Immunization (GAVI) intended to support the Kenya Expanded Programme of Immunisation (KEPI).
The case was mentioned on 19th July 2022 for purposes of receiving directions on the filing of submissions and hearing of the Petition. It however emerged that the Ministry of Health, through its legal representative the Attorney General, had not filed a response to the Petition, despite being served with court directions to do so in March 2021 and May 2022. This reflects over one year and four months during which the Attorney General has failed to file its response to the Petition.
Given the lack of response from the Respondents, the Court has given one last chance to the Attorney General to comply with its previous directions and given him until 4th August 2022. The Court has also directed the parties to file submissions within 21 days of receiving the Attorney General’s response and has set down the Petition for hearing on 14th November 2022.
KELIN (the only Petitioner in the matter) and other civil society partners requested information on the misappropriation of the funds earmarked for the vaccination of children between 2009 and 2015, but these requests were not responded to in accordance with the law under Article 35 of the Constitution and the Access to Information Act, 2016.[1] The Petitioner seeks various orders geared towards fostering accountability in the utilization of public funds within the Ministry of Health. The Petitioners also seek to underscore the continued failure of the Commission on Administrative Justice failure to set norms and standards on access to information. This failure has resulted in the government wilfully ignoring requests from Kenyans.
The Petitioners look forward to finally highlighting the submissions in order to allow the High Court to pronounce itself on the importance of access to information in the management of public funds.
To contribute to the discussions on this forum, follow KELIN on our social media platforms: Twitter: @KELINkenya using the hashtag: #RightToInfoKe #justice2health
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/kelinkenya
For more information, contact:
Nyokabi Njogu
Advocate for the Petitioner
Kuwinda Lane, off Lang’ata Road, Karen C
P.O. Box 112 – 00202 KNH Nairobi
Tel: +254 020 2515790
[1] See https://www.gavi.org/sites/default/files/audit/pa/Audit%20report%20Kenya%20-%20May%202016.pdf.
