Uhuru delay in filling Cabinet slots comes under scrutiny

The prolonged suspension of five Cabinet Secretaries could be exposing President Uhuru Kenyatta’s soft underbelly in the fight against corruption.

Some commentators suggest that the Head of State is facing political blackmail by some leaders of his Jubilee Alliance.

With the suspension now stretching to five months, critics want President Kenyatta to resolve the issue.

One of them, Cotu (Central Organisation of Trade Unions) secretary-general Francis Atwoli said: “I think some people are trying to blackmail the President so that he does not fill the positions substantively.”

According to Mr Atwoli, the inordinate delay in appointing substantive cabinet secretaries or reinstating the suspended ones could be because of the nature of power arrangement between TNA and URP.

“But the President should rise above the blackmail and do what is right. He must be assertive, which in the circumstances he has not been,” he added.

But State House’s senior director of public communications, Munyori Buku, rejected the notion that the prolonged suspension of some Cabinet Secretaries could be causing paralysis in government.

“I am not qualified to answer any question regarding Cabinet Secretaries. Even if I was to do so, there is no law that has been broken (in leaving certain key ministries under the leadership of acting CSs),” he said, adding that the question of acting “is a non-issue.”

President Kenyatta had suspended Cabinet Secretaries Charity Ngilu (Lands), Michael Kamau (Transport and Infrastructure), Felix Koskei (Agriculture), Kazungu Kambi (Labour) and Davis Chirchir (Energy).

The President appointed ICT’s Fred Matiang’i for Lands, Industrialisation Secretary Adan Mohammed to take over Agriculture while the Treasury’s Henry Rotich is in charge of Energy. He also appointed Defence Secretary Raychelle Omamo to oversee Labour while Health CS James Macharia has been in charge of the transport docket.

The principal secretaries who are on suspension are Mutea Iringo (Defence), Nduva Muli (Transport), Patrick Omutia (Mining) and James Teko (Water).

Secretary to the Cabinet Francis Kimemia was also suspended but later dismissed before the 60-day period President Uhuru Kenyatta had directed the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate the corruption allegations elapsed.

The nomination of interior PS Monica Juma to replace Mr Kimemia as Secretary to the Cabinet was rejected by the National Assembly.

Until now, Dr Juma has remained as the Interior PS while Maj-Gen (rtd) Gordon Kihalang’wa, who had been nominated to take over from her, is equally stuck at the Immigration Department where he is the director.

Deputy President William Ruto’s Chief of Staff Maryanne Kittany, the managing trustee of the National Social Security Fund Richard Langat and Kenya Pipeline Company managing director Charles Tanui are also in the cold since their suspension.

NOT OPEN-ENDED

Five months down the line and with the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission having cleared Mr Koskei and charged Mr Kamau and Mrs Ngilu, there has been no action from the President to substantively fill the positions.

This is despite President Kenyatta in his State of the Nation address on March 26 having directed that the anti-graft investigations “should not be an open-ended process” and should be “concluded within the next 60 days”.

In any event, the law affords the President the powers to sack a minister summarily and to nominate another in their place. It has befuddled critics, friends and foes on why Mr Kenyatta appears indecisive on this matter.

And now, the President may himself be living true to the “hands off, eyes off, feet off, everything off” phrase he coined when he was Opposition Leader with regard to President Mwai Kibaki’s laid- back approach to governance, according to his critics.

But Mr Buku said that even though the President had mentioned 60 days for the conclusion of the investigations, he was merely expressing a desire for quick conclusion to the investigations.

“The President is neither in charge of investigations nor prosecutions. This country has laws. And the President was very clear that it was not for him to determine the guilt or innocence of the individuals. They had to go through a process which is going on,” said Mr Buku. 

While acting CSs can legally transact any business, they may be faced with overwhelming situations of having to attend to two ministries. As a result, the two ministries under a single CS may suffer from his or her divided attention.

For instance, Mr Macharia now has to juggle the health crisis in many counties where health workers have gone on strike demanding better work environment and enhanced pay, and the infrastructure projects under the transport docket.

In addition, as an acting CS, one may also tend to hold back making key decisions in a ministry that is not theirs.

For instance, Ms Omamo is procrastinating in the appointment of the new Board of Trustees of the National Social Security Fund after the former board members terms expired.

Furthermore, and painfully so for the taxpayer, the suspended CSs, PSs and other officials receive half salary and some perks like a vehicle and bodyguards even though they are not working.

The situation has also upset Jubilee politicians in the Rift Valley, a section of which is now piling pressure on the President to reinstate suspended officials from the South Rift amidst claims that there was a plan to replace them altogether.

MPs from the region warned that the inaction by State House could break the government as failure to reinstate the five suspended ministers will potentially betray the 50-50 deal between them and their TNA counterparts in Jubilee.

Mr Koskei, Mr Kambi and Mr Chirchir are close allies of URP leader, Mr Ruto.

Emurua Dikirr MP Johanna Ng’eno said the delay could be a plan to bundle them out for political reasons.

“The government wants to replace some ministers, but since it will raise the political temperatures, they are buying time with this graft issue despite having been cleared,” Mr Ng’eno told the Sunday Nation.

Nandi Senator Stephen Sang and Alfred Keter of Nandi Hills said failure to restore the CSs would derail service delivery in their respective ministries.

“We cannot have one CS overseeing two big ministries and expect work to run smoothly. At one point, those standing in for others will be overwhelmed. Let those who have been cleared be brought back,” said Mr Sang.

Mr Keter said the “list of shame” had been politicised.

“We are now reading politics over this delay. Some people want to short-change URP. The ministers should be brought back or else we reconsider our stand in the coalition,” Keter said.