Raila Odinga warns civil servants on campaigns
From left: Cabinet secretaries Charles Keter (Energy), Fred Matiang'i (Education) and Mwangi Kiunjuri (Devolution) confer during a fundraiser at Nyambera DOK Primary School, Kisii County, on March 12, 2017. They are accused of hunting for votes for the president in breach of the law. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP.
Opposition chief Raila Odinga has put on notice civil servants campaigning for President Kenyatta ahead of the August elections.
Mr Odinga, a co-principal of the National Super Alliance (Nasa), says he will fire all government workers who have engaged in politics if he makes it to State House.
STATE HOUSE
He on Monday dismissed as unconstitutional State House defence of Cabinet secretaries and principal secretaries who have been campaigning for Mr Kenyatta’s re-election.
“Uhuru must prepare to leave office with his political civil servants. We won't allow them to serve in a Nasa government,” Mr Odinga said at the Bomas of Kenya.
On Sunday, State House spokesperson Manoah Esipisu defended the ministers and permanent secretaries.
“No, they are not campaigning. They are merely describing the investments made under President Kenyatta and the impact thereof, and why therefore it is important for the President to be re-elected to continue with the task of transforming Kenya,” Mr Esipisu said.
POWERS
“For us, it is really a question of accountability. It is precisely because public officers are speaking more that the country acknowledges that Kenya is irreversibly transforming.”
But Mr Odinga argued that such a move would interfere with the separation of powers.
“Today, I want to school Jubilee on something called separation of powers. You cannot have civil servants running around campaigning. It is wrong,” he said.
He went on: “In a credible civil service in established democracies, civil servants don't participate in politics. It is wrong from CSs and PSs to be in politics.”
Ministers who have been seen campaigning are Mwangi Kiunjuri (Devolution), Charles Keter (Energy), Joseph Nkaissery (Interior), Fred Matiang’i (Education) and Eugene Wamalwa (Water and Irrigation).
