Fish out of water? Intrigues of the ‘political trio’ among technocrats

Two of them are facing court cases challenging their suitability to hold office, and one has been sued for cancelling 31 mining licences.

Cabinet secretaries Charity Ngilu, Kazungu Kambi and Najib Balala are the only cabinet secretaries perceived to be “political” and who are still causing fireworks politically. Mr Balala is somewhat less visible.

Two years ago, what are now being viewed as questionable escapades by the three would have been seen as perfectly normal political business, but the Constitution has since robbed ministerial politics of its sheen.

Cabinet secretaries must not be members of Parliament and shouldn’t dip their feet into politics.

They are a far cry from the defunct “Cabinet Minister” species whose unofficial but more pronounced job description was politicking, robotic voting in Parliament, grandstanding, back-stabbing and, at times, cutting deals at the expense of the republic. Of course, there were the exceptions of those who delivered.

Ministers could shoot their mouths off to the delight of headline writers. Friday evening television news producers did a nice job of packaging footage of them providing comic relief.

You wouldn’t want to miss their theatrics, unfailingly aired after the 7 pm and 9 pm news to attract maximum viewership. They could dance with the people and pupils.

Inciting voters to evict a certain community from their districts and denying it the next day, even when confronted with incontrovertible evidence, was no big deal. Their successors are a different lot though; circumspect and considerably less voluble.

MINISTERIAL ERA

Cabinet ministers were known to fight hard whenever anybody stood in their way. Martha Karua, as Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister, resigned when judges were appointed behind her back in 2009.

Ten years earlier, the fiery Simeon Nyachae quit the Cabinet after President Daniel arap Moi “demoted” him to the Ministry of Industry from the powerful Finance docket.

In the current Cabinet, only Charity Ngilu (Lands, Urban Development and Housing), Kazungu Kambi (Labour) and Najib Balala (Mining) are throwbacks to the ministerial era, as are President Kenyatta and his Deputy William Ruto. Mr Kambi was an assistant minister in the Kibaki administration.

It is, therefore, not surprising that the only cabinet secretaries regularly in the limelight are the former politicians. Education’s Jacob Kaimenyi occasionally hits the headlines because his docket covers a broad public service, as does Health’s James Macharia. Devolution’s Anne Waiguru is highly visible but one would not describe her as political.

As for Mrs Ngilu, Mr Kambi and Mr Balala, there is something about them that sticks out in the apolitical cabinet.

As politicians, — you cannot take it out of their DNA — they graduated to their current positions from the school of hard knocks.

HARDBALL

Hardball is their type of game; not the boardroom finesse of technocrats like former Barclays Bank CEO Adan Mohammed — now the cabinet secretary in charge of industrialisation and enterprise development.

Former cabinet minister Franklin Bett says of Charity Ngilu: “I don’t expect her to behave differently. She was often full of herself during cabinet meetings. She was strong-willed her point of view had to be taken. Of me, she would ask, ‘why are we listening to a Moi man?’” Mr Balala, Mr Bett said, was forceful but accommodating. “He would say ‘I want to listen to what so and so has to say’”.

But Mr Bett doesn’t blame the presidency for allowing politicians in the cabinet.

“As politicians they were not going to allow other people from their parties to be nominated. It was payback time (for their political support).

The President had to honour pre-election deals,” said Mr Bett who did not defend his parliamentary seat in the last General Election.

“It is difficult for them to completely avoid politics,” political scientist Dr Tom Wolf said. As for court cases facing the three cabinet secretaries, he does not think there is anything political about them. “It depends on how you define it.”

NATURE OF POLITICS
According to him, there would be nothing wrong if “Ngilu went home and some people came to her with grievances.”

A Greek philosopher opined that he who thinks he is above politics is either a god or a beast. If politics is defined as participation in the affairs of the state, then the notion of apolitical cabinet secretaries becomes somewhat problematic.

But is politics inherently evil?

In Mr Bett’s books, the drafters of the Constitution shouldn’t have cast the law governing the conduct of cabinet secretaries in granite. “For ministers to deliver, they should have a political flair about them. And what’s politics anyway?” he said.

Dr Wolf takes it up: “How do we draw a fine line between what is political and what is not?” He nevertheless thinks such a line, if drawn, must define what is constitutional and what is not as far as political activity by cabinet secretaries is concerned.

Asked what he would make of a cabinet secretary attending a political rally, Constitution Implementation Commission chairman Charles Nyachae said “it would depend on the nature of the rally and what s/he would be doing there”.

Of the political cabinet secretaries, Mrs Ngilu is the pushiest; she makes it a point to get what she wants. Last week, she had the Public Service Commission jettison seven senior civil servants from her ministry.

Lands commissioner Zablon Mabea landed at the Ministry of Interior and Coordination. Also moved were director of survey Ephantus Murage and his deputy Boaz Owino.

Chief lands registrar Cyrus Ngatia and senior assistant commissioner of lands Elizabeth Gicheha now serve in the Attorney-General’s chambers.

INTRIGUES

In October last year, Mrs Ngilu survived an attempt by Parliament to remove her from office when she appointed Peter Kang’ethe Kahuho acting director-general of lands.

Revoking that appointment later saved her neck. The Lands and Delegated Legislations joint committee concluded that Mrs Ngilu breached the law by appointing Mr Kahuho to a position that was not provided for in law.

She would later accompany President Uhuru Kenyatta to the Coast where he presented 60,000 title deeds to land owners, a feat both technocratic and political.

A suit filed by Mr Clifford Kaya in the High Court seeks to have Mrs Ngilu removed from office for allegedly breaching the Constitution.

Mr Balala, formerly leader of the Republican Party, has also been sued by mining company Cortec for revoking the licences of 31 mining companies in August last year.
The mining secretary insists the licences were irregularly issued ahead of the General Election last year.

Mr Kambi has been in the eye of the storm several times, the latest issue being the Sh5 billion infrastructural project for Tassia II housing estate in Nairobi.

He suspended it after NSSF board members — the Central Organisation of Trade Unions and the Federation of Kenya Employers — dissociated themselves from the awarding of the contract to China Jiangxi International Limited via e-mail.

The pair contested the manner in which the giant project was awarded — through e-mail.

In what must have been an eventful week for Mr Kambi, Mr Charles Omanga was in court seeking his removal claiming his academic credentials do not qualify him for the job.