Lawyer Charles Mugane Files Petition to Halt KMTC Recruitment

Advocate Charles Mugane of Mugane Law LLP filed a constitutional petition at the Employment and Labour Relations Court in Nairobi on October 28, 2026, seeking to suspend the Kenya Medical Training College’s (KMTC) ongoing recruitment process.

The petition names KMTC, the Public Service Commission and the Attorney General as respondents and lists the Secretary to the State Corporations Advisory Committee as an interested party.

Mugane challenges advertisements published on October 5 and October 21, 2026, for twenty senior teaching and management posts, including two Chief Principal Lecturer, five Senior Principal Lecturer I, ten Senior Principal Lecturer II, one Senior Assistant Director of ICT and two Assistant Director of Human Resource Management positions.

He argues that the internal advertisement on October 21 for the teaching posts breaches KMTC’s Human Capital Management Policies, which require external, open, competitive and merit-based recruitment, and that the permanent and pensionable terms advertised for the Chief Principal Lecturer posts should be contract positions under Public Service Commission guidelines.

The lawyer also contends that the master’s degree requirement added for the Senior Assistant Director of ICT and Assistant Director of Human Resource Management posts is not prescribed by the relevant PSC guidelines and was introduced without consultation with employees or trade unions.

Mugane is seeking a declaration that the recruitment process is unconstitutional and unlawful, an order quashing the advertisements, a direction for KMTC to conduct a fresh recruitment exercise in compliance with the Constitution, statutory provisions and public service regulations, and costs of the petition.

He has further applied for urgent interim conservatory orders to suspend the advertisements and the entire recruitment process pending the hearing, citing a certificate of urgency.

The petition notes that applications for the two non-teaching positions close on October 30, while the deadlines for the teaching positions are set for November 13, 2026.

In the court documents Mugane wrote, “The imminent consequence of not stopping the said recruitment process is that many deserving candidates shall be denied the opportunity to participate in the process and further that the 1st Respondent may end up with undeserving candidates on account of having been appointed through a process that is not open, transparent, fair and competitive contrary to the Constitution of Kenya, 2010, the Public Service (Values and Principles) Act, the Leadership and Integrity Act, the Public Officers Ethics Act and the KMTC Human Capital Management Policies and Procedures Manual.”

The allegations remain to be determined by the court and no order on the requested suspension has been reported.