Parliament wraps up Cabinet vetting

Public vetting for 16 Cabinet Secretaries nominated by President Uhuru Kenyatta entered its third and final day Saturday with the nominees spelling out their vision and plans in steering their respective sectors once their appointments are approved by Parliament.

Nominee for Sports, Culture and Arts Dr Hassan Wario was first to take the seat, saying his first business once approved to head the docket would be to look for funding to support sporting activities, such as better welfare for sports men and women, and develop infrastructure.

He said he would set up a museum and a hall of fame monument where tourists would come to learn of the country’s sporting greats.

Wario said the Sports Act 2013 spelt elaborate measures to uplift sports arts and culture, saying the sector could contribute immensely towards ending youth unemployment.

“In the West, countries earn billions from sports and cultural activities and it is the high time the country took advantage of its sports and cultural heritage to tap to the employment potential,” he said.

The country was the cradle of mankind, said Wario, and a melting pot of cultural heritage that the country would build on to promote tourism.

Cabinet nominee for Energy and Petroleum Mr Davis Chirchir was put to task over his handling of the pension payment for 33,000 employees of the former Kenya Post and Telecommunication companty, before it was split into three entities in the 1990’s and most of the workers retrenched.

The secretary of the pension scheme presented an affidavit to the vetting committee accusing Chirchir of undervaluing the assets of the former State corporation by a whooping Sh1 billion that translated into the workers being paid peanuts for pension.

He said he was not directly involved in determining how much the workers were paid, saying he was only general manager in charge of Information Technology and only facilitated the setting up of an independent pension scheme fund.

“There were other people such as the managing director and the PS who were perhaps more directly involved. My role was only to facilitate the setting up of the fund,” he said.

Contrary to the accusations, Chirchir said proper audits were made for the assets and the liabilities vested in the Postal Corporation of Kenya, Communications Commission of Kenya, and Telkom, three offshoots of the former state corporation.

The controversial deal paved the way of entry of Safaricom, as well as liberalisation of the telecommunications industry.

“All assets and liabilities were vested in the three entities and anyone claiming pension money could still claim it from among the three companies as the records are still there,” he said.

Chirchir also faced a second complaint from an employee of his private telecommunication company Jeremiah Kosgey, whom he dismissed but reportedly failed to pay his dues.

However, the former Telkom Kenya nominee and interim independent electoral commission commissioner said the issue had been brought to closure and the employee paid his money through the Labour ministry.

Other nominees vetted were Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries nominee Felix Kosgei, who promised to revive agriculture, by employing more extension officers to every county to provide training to farmers.

With the country currently not food sufficient and relying on imports to cover the deficit, Koskei has the challenge of reviving the ailing agriculture sector.

Koskei will have more on his plate than the revamping of a sector which contributes about 25 per cent to the country’s GDP and which is depended upon by 70 per cent of the population.

The holder of an MBA in Strategic Management from the University of Nairobi and  Bachelor of Science degree from the same university will be charged with responsibility of overseeing Kenya’s attainment of food security, one of the critical planks of Vision 2030.

He is also the man to implement Jubilee Coalition’s promise of putting a million acres of land under irrigation and effecting the shift from rudimentary methods of production to highly mechanised farming.

Koskei promised to respect devolution by maintaining only the roles of the ministry in policy direction and formulation, training, research, and devolving agriculture, fisheries and livestock development to the counties.

He promised to streamline the distribution of fertilizer, saying the yields of the country could be five times more, if the right quantities of fertilizer were applied and on time.

“We will increase importation of fertilizer from the current 530,000 metric tonnes to one million metric tonnes and ensure the fertilizer was in the country on time, so that farmers can have access and use it to improve production,” he said.

He said fertilizer for use during the long rains in April would arrive in the country in December, in time to ensure it reached the farmers well ahead of the planting time.

Nominee for Industrialisation and Enterprise Development Adan Mohammed said he would deal with counterfeits, and revive key sectors, especially those that are labour intensive such as the textile industry, to provide jobs to the youth.

He said he would promote the private sector to lead speedy industrialization, with the government only playing a minimal role.

East African Affairs, Commerce and Tourism nominee Phylis Kandie was taken to task over complaints that she mismanaged funds for the Kipkelion Women Group following a complaint made through a sworn affidavit.

Ms Kandie said she did not wish to comment over the matter because she had already made written submissions to the Committee on Appointments.

Cabinet secretary nominee in charge of Mining Mr Najib Balala was informed that a complaint had been received from members of the public and was awaiting to respond to it at the time of going to press.

President Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto are yet to fill two slots to complete their 18-member Cabinet, with the country still waiting the naming of appointees to the Labour and the Interior and Coordination of National Government ministries.