Unease in Jubilee over top State jobs

The Jubilee Coalition is facing what could be a backlash with a section of United Republican Party leaders expressing uneasiness in regard to appointment of key government officials.

MPs from Deputy President William Ruto’s URP said they have been side-lined ever since job allocations and appointments began late 2013.

Led by Nandi Hills MP Alfred Keter (below), the MPs held several rallies in Uasin Gishu and Nandi counties over the weekend with the same message — criticising the sacking of National Youth Service director Kiplimo Rugut — and crying foul over State appointments that favoured TNA.

Speaking during an Education Day at Kapsabet Girls High School in Nandi on Friday, Mr Keter criticised Mr Ruto for remaining silence on Mr Rugut’s sacking.

“We elected Uhuru Kenyatta as the President of Kenya because of the respect we had for Ruto.

The DP should be firm and ensure that top civil servants from the community are not relieved of their duties with no reason,” he said.

Sunday, Kapseret MP Oscar Sudi, a close ally of Mr Ruto, joined the fray by criticizing the sacking of Mr Rugut by Devolution Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru.

Mr Sudi was speaking at a fund-raiser in Kapleketet, Uasin Gishu County, where he claimed a section of top government officials allied to TNA “were disrespecting URP.”

“Those in TNA should not be dominant because they are veering off the memorandum of understanding we had,” he said.

On Saturday, Kericho senator Charles Keter, questioned the urgency of making the changes and said the position should have been competitively filed.

Mr Sudi criticized the appointment of former State House official Dr Nelson Githinji as Mr Rugut’s replacement at NYS.

In his argument, Sudi said there was no goodwill in the appointment of Dr Githinji, “considering that he traces his roots to the TNA stronghold of central region.”

“At the end of it all the country is made up of 42 tribes, it be good if someone from the Coast or from Nyanza region or wherever and not from the central region,” said a discontented Mr Sudi.

On Saturday, Kericho senator Charles Keter, also a close ally to the deputy president, questioned the urgency of making the changes and differed saying the appointment should have been competitively filled.

“Many questions arise in this regard and the president and his deputy should harmonize it. First it was done on a weekend, so the urgency into the change cannot be clearly argued out,” Keter told the Sunday Nation.

Mr Rugut, who hails from Nandi County, is said to have been appointed to a director’s role in the Sports Ministry where his NYS predecessor, Mr Japheth Mwania, is also serving as Director of Sports.

Ms Waiguru has since said she moved Mr Rugut for non-performance with her statement coming shortly after President Kenyatta declared that more changes would be done.

“Ours is a specifically transformational agenda for this country,” the President said on Friday. “I have no issue with any particular officer of government.

We have worked with those who were there for a year. We have our agenda as a government which we intend to pursue and there will be other changes.”

The President added: “There will be those people who we believe are good but maybe in the wrong place and who can be moved to another department and probably deliver better for Kenyans; there will be those people who have served government well but who, for one reason or another, we feel are not able to serve the direction that this government is taking and those ones we will ask to leave, and retire and continue to consult government; then there will be those who, for reasons of either corruption or mismanagement or incapacity will be fired.

“I urge Kenyans not to take issue with one individual because there will be more changes to come.”