If Waiguru censure motion passes, ministers will not relish their jobs

What you need to know:

  • If a Cabinet Secretary cannot fire or transfer any officer in her ministry, I don’t know who would want the job.
  • Mr Rugut was for years the Central Provincial Commissioner based in Nyeri, former President Kibaki’s backyard, at a time when members of his community were solidly in the opposition.

Until a year ago, Mrs Anne Waiguru was hardly a household name. In fact, away from the hallowed confines of the Treasury, her home village and perhaps her neighbourhood in Nairobi, it is probable her name would have elicited little interest.

But today, she is easily the most famous — or infamous, depending on whether you want her to retain her job or go home — Cabinet Secretary in Kenya.

What is incontestable is that President Kenyatta must have had a great deal of confidence in her work, which is probably why he entrusted her with the enormous responsibility of heading arguably the third most powerful docket in his Cabinet — that of Devolution.

Now, this is not meant to be a defence of Ms Waiguru. I would be out of line to presume she followed the Constitution to the letter while firing two senior officers under her docket.

But if a Cabinet Secretary cannot fire or transfer any officer in her ministry, I don’t know who would want the job. This is because all Cabinet Secretaries would be so emasculated they would be unable to function.

I highly doubt this is what MPs really want. Even they should know that making a Cabinet Secretary’s job impossible will, in the end, be counter-productive.

On the other hand, if a CS is not delivering as a result of which the people whom the MPs represent suffer, and the President will not do anything about it, then the MPs would have no choice but censure him or her.

But this is not about Ms Waiguru per se; it is about what she represents and the whole idea of members of the National Assembly ganging up in a show of might to remove a presidential appointee from the Cabinet through an impeachment process.

This onslaught on the Executive is easily one of the most dangerous parliamentary oversight roles to be enacted in our Constitution, because if the censure motion goes through on Tuesday, very few Cabinet Secretaries will do their jobs.

PAYBACK TIME

They will be unable to function since they will always be looking over their shoulder lest they annoy some vindictive MP who enjoys collecting signatures. Just spare a thought for Mr Fred Matiang’i and how he is feeling right now.

For instance, it is not clear how a Cabinet Secretary can be impeached by MPs ostensibly because he or she is arrogant and does not treat them with enough respect. This, surely, must be the most ridiculous ground for removing a minister.

Paying obeisance to MPs cannot be in the job description of any CS; respect is earned, not coerced from others.

But then, on the other hand, a person’s deportment in office is extremely important. However senior or powerful you feel you are, you must do your job with a modicum of humility. If you humiliate others, you must know there will be payback time one day.

So, the fact that Ms Waiguru transferred Mr Japther Kiplimo Rugut as director of the National Youth Service to another senior job in a different ministry does not seem to be justification enough. There must be more to the protest than meets the eye.

In fact, it is astonishing that the matter has taken a tribal angle and divided members of the ruling coalition; astonishing because Mr Rugut was for years the Central Provincial Commissioner based in Nyeri, former President Kibaki’s backyard, at a time when members of his community were solidly in the opposition.

I have no idea what the problem really is, but it could have something to do with Ms Waiguru’s job.

Devolution is the most complex socio-political experiment this country has ever undertaken. It is in its nascent stage, and a year later, not many people seem to know how it is supposed to work.

It is also the latest gravy train where real money is to be made if you know how to go about it.

Could it be that Ms Waiguru blocked some scheme of MPs to join the eating frenzy — which is at the moment monopolised by county governors and MCAs — but did it in a less than diplomatic manner? Let’s hope we learn a lot more on Tuesday.