The appointment of Dr Bruno Linyiru as the Director General of the Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA), since January 2024, has continued in and outside Courts – even as confusion reigns at the farmers most important regulatory institution, AFA.
Dr Linyiru’s pick was made by sacked Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mithika Linturi – a man partially taken through humiliating impeachment process at the National Assembly over his alleged active role in procurement and sale of fake fertilizers.
Dr Linyuru comes from Linturi’s Meru Nation and is said to be related to him – presenting an angle of severe of conflict of interest.
AFA has not has a substantive head since its inception in 2014. It regulates key crops save for the tea which has a separate board.
Although Dr Linyiru holds a PhD, his expertise is more bent toward trade and entrepreneurship. He has no experience with either agriculture or food matters.
But his major undoing is the gigantic integrity question as advanced by Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) which has cited his involvement in a questionable involvement in corrupt dealings while working at the Geothermal Development Corporation (GDC) in 2015.
Dr Linyiru has not been convicted but EACC strongly believes it has a strong case against him. He was arraigned. But he could not take plea on account of conservatory orders – in a long and winding case that went all the way to the Supreme Court.
He remains a man of interest to Integrity Centre – which has similarly raised a red flag on the CS nominee for Cooperatives and MSMEs Wycliffe Oparanya.
It’s in the midst of all these that a petitioner moved to the High Court seeking a permanent barring of Dr Kinyiru from taking up the position.
A series of further fraud followed. Before the High could deliver the ruling, Dr Linyuru secured a suspect advisory from the Attorney General purporting to clear him. On many occasions, and owing to vast corruption, legal opinions from the AG office are often fraudulently issued to the highest bidder – therefore frustrating the cause of justice. ‘
It also demeans the office of the AG as the state officer in charge of ensuring the rule of law and protection of public interest.
Matters took an even more interesting turn of events when Dr Linyiru presented another suspect letter from EACC purportedly taking a u-turn on its’ earlier advisory.
EACC later disowned the second letter whose authorship (and positioning it as authentic by a relatively junior officer) – points to worrying levels of corrupt within the ranks and file of EACC itself.
The more reason we will be requesting DCI to investigate the second letter from the EACC that appeared to correct and purported to supersede the one that had been signed by the EACC CEO Twalib Mbarak.
This Friday, AFA board meeting will be happening against a backdrop of Dr Linyiru masquerading as a substantive DG while an acting DG remains in place.
Legally, and technically, Dr Linyiru remains a stranger at the AFA board. How some of the AFA directors are allowing him to break the law at will is most perplexing.
This is the more reason COFEK will be requesting the review of the board and all the decisions they have made with Dr Linyiyru masquerading as CEO.
State Corporations
The Public Service Commission (PSC) has enormous duty on righting the wrongs at AFA. It cannot abdicate its’ responsibility to a body like the State Corporations Advisory Committee (SCAC) whose role is merely advisory.
The purported appointment of Dr Linyiru, according to latest public service circulars, has no approval of the Head of Public Service Mr Felix Kiptarus Koskei.
Eyes are on the AFA chairman Cornelly Serem – who at best – has acted as either a proxy of Mithika Linturi or at worst, an incompetent Chairperson who is either naive or ignorant of the threshold of appointing such senior public servant against various legal basis – esp as provided by Article 232 on values and principles of public service .
At least 4 board members confided to our credible sources that they were coerced to endorse the pick of Dr Linyiru “under duress” by Chairman Serem and former Agriculture CS Mithka Linturi.
The same sources believe that Agriculture PS Dr Festus Ronoh, himself a key player in the fake fertilizer scam, championing for the retention of Dr Linyiru without following the due process.
Three candidates were submitted to CS Linturi for consideration, including Christine Chesaro, the current acting head of the Horticulture Directorate and a former Chief Executive Committee Member for Agriculture in Nandi County.
The initial public notice inviting applications for AFA FG was retracted, and subsequently re-advertised the position with revised qualifications.
The initial advertisement stipulated a requirement of at least a Master’s degree and a bachelor’s in agriculture coupled with 10 years of experience.
The subsequent advertisement, without explanation, lowered the qualification threshold to any degree, omitting the necessity for a Master’s degree and reducing the requisite experience to five years.
COFEK has since requested its’ lawyers to seek enjoinment in the ELRC case number E058 of 2024. We will be urging as many other interested parties to join in – in pursuit of justice and public interest
The Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi, Agriculture, PS Festus Ronoh and Bruno Linyiru now risk contempt of Court proceedings as per petitioner Jared Onsongo Abuya letter dated July 29, 2024
