President William Ruto presided over the swearing-in ceremony of the fifty Chief Administrative Secretaries he officially appointed on Wednesday.

The swearing-in ceremony was held on Thursday at the Nairobi State House.

This follows a communique through the State House spokesman Hussein Mohamed that the ceremony would materialise on Thursday.

Ruto made the appointments of the CAS nominees despite the fact that the National Assembly declined to vet them.

That followed Speaker of the National Assembly Moses Wetangula’s advice that there was no constitutional or statutory basis upon which the August House could vet the nominees.

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"IT IS NOTIFIED that the Speaker of the National Assembly has referred back to the Appointing Authority the Transmittal of the Nominees for Appointment to the rank of Chief Administrative Secretaries," the statement read.

"The obligation to respect, uphold and defend the Constitution enjoins the House to refrain from assuming and discharging a role that it has not been expressly assigned by the Constitution or written law.

In that regard, the National Assembly is unable to vet the nominees in the absence of an express constitutional or statutory requirement to do so."

The speaker therefore referred the matter back to the president, giving him the green light to proceed with the appointments.

"AS A CONSEQUENCE of the referral by the Speaker of the National Assembly which has found that there is no constitutional or statutory basis upon which the August House can vet the nominees, the Head of State and Government has today 22nd March, 2023 caused the appointment of the nominees to various Ministries as earlier notified," the statement read in part.

While addressing the fresh appointees, Ruto noted he made the appointments across the country regardless of political affiliations and voting patterns in the previous election because he wanted to bring the country together.

"I did make  in this administration appointments deliberately across the country. Because it teased our intention to bring Kenya together. I even went out of my way to appoint people who may not have necessarily voted for me because the elections are behind us. We must come together. Irrespective of how we voted, irrespective of what political parties we voted for, or who we voted for. It is now time for us as a country to come together to work together so that we can better serve the millions of Kenyans who expect from us, nothing short of service," Ruto said.