(NAIROBI, Kenya) – The High Court has rejected a bid to suspend three directors of the Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (Ketraco), ruling that the nation’s new law for government owned enterprises does not apply to the utility firm.
The court stated that Ketraco is not named under the Government-Owned Enterprises Act, 2025, which served as the foundation for the legal challenge. It found that the petitioners did not establish a strong enough case to warrant interim orders. “Ketraco is not among the entities listed as falling under the regime upon which the petitioners have sought to rely. The Government-Owned Enterprises Act, therefore, does not apply to the impugned appointments,” the court declared.
This decision means directors Mercylinnete Rotich, Janerose Gatwiri and Nick Ochola will remain in their posts while a full petition, lodged by Issa Elanyi Chamao, Patrick Karani Ekirapa and Paul Ngweywo Kirui, is heard. The ruling reverses an earlier interim order from June that had temporarily blocked the three from carrying out their board functions. That earlier order had also suspended board resolutions made by or in the presence of the three appointees from 29 May 2026, the day they were appointed.
The three joined Ketraco after an appointment by Energy and Petroleum Cabinet Secretary Opiyo Wandayi. The National Treasury had advertised the vacancies on 18 May, inviting applications for independent directors to the boards of government owned enterprises, with a deadline of 29 May.
The petitioners argued that Mr Wandayi appointed the directors while the recruitment process was still open, thereby bypassing the Government-Owned Enterprises Boards Search and Selection Panel created under the new legislation. They challenged the appointments under sections of the Act and constitutional principles covering good governance, transparency, accountability, public participation and fair administrative action. Their petition sought orders to stop the three directors from working and to suspend board resolutions made with their involvement from 29 May.
Ketraco opposed the application, arguing that its governance structure remains anchored in the State Corporations Act and its own Articles of Association, precisely because it is absent from the schedules of the 2025 Act. The company said Parliament had deliberately excluded it from the new framework. It also argued that transition provisions could not apply because a required pre transition audit had not been completed or published. The company further told the court that the interim orders had damaged its ability to approve budgets, authorise payments, supervise transmission projects and meet obligations to contractors and financiers.
The Government-Owned Enterprises Act came into force on 5 December 2025. Its First Schedule lists entities including Kenya Power, KenGen, Kenya Airports Authority, Kenya Ports Authority and Kenya Railways Corporation, but not Ketraco. In its ruling, the court found that the petitioners had not shown a strong case with a likelihood of success. It noted the court could later revoke or cancel the appointments if the main petition succeeded.
The judge also found that the petitioners had not shown that they would suffer harm that could not be compensated, or that the petition would become pointless without interim protection. Since the petitioners had not claimed to have applied for the advertised positions, been shortlisted or been denied consideration, the court found no basis for their claim of a legitimate expectation to be appointed.