Cabinet appointees ordered to relinquish party roles

Jubilee Party Secretary-General Raphael Tuju addresses journalists at the party's headquarters in Nairobi on June 14, 2017. Mr Tuju was co-opted to the cabinet. PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • President Uhuru Kenyatta said CASs would help cabinet secretaries coordinate the running of ministries.
  • Registrar of Political Parties Lucy Ndung’u said the five politicians named as ministers and CASs had relinquished their party posts.

Politicians appointed as chief administrative secretaries have been ordered to relinquish their roles in parties.

Some officers start work Monday, with reports that their appointment has sent administrators in ministries scrambling to get them offices and cars.

Along with cabinet secretaries who took office on Friday, the CASs were asked to abandon their parties, despite their appointments being political rewards.

The move is said to be part of a strategy to have the cabinet focus on Jubilee manifesto, a position that will be voiced by party secretary-general Raphael Tuju.

PARTY POSITIONS
Mr Tuju was co-opted to the cabinet but was not formally nominated and therefore not vetted by Parliament.

“My job is to ensure what the party promised is delivered,” Mr Tuju said.

President Uhuru Kenyatta said CASs would help cabinet secretaries coordinate the running of ministries.

On Sunday, Registrar of Political Parties Lucy Ndung’u said the five politicians named as ministers and CASs had relinquished their party posts.

“The CSs submitted their resignation before the interviews, and the ones named as CAS did so after, with the last one having been submitted in the first week of February,” Ms Ndung’u told the Nation.

Cabinet secretaries who have resigned from their parties are Peter Munya (East African Affairs), who was Party of National Unity leader and his Economic Freedom Party counterpart Ukur Yatani, now Labour minister.

ABABU RESIGNATION
Chief administrative secretaries Ababu Namwamba (Foreign Affairs, Labour Party of Kenya), Mr Patrick Ntutu (Interior, deputy party leader Chama Cha Mashinani) and Ms Winnie Guchu (Water, Jubilee Party executive director) have submitted their resignation letters.

“The appointment puts me in a place where I have to relinquish my political party post so that I can serve Kenyans,” Mr Namwamba said when he announced his resignation from LPK on Saturday.

While some have been waiting to be allocated space, others have been on standby as renovation continues.

There is also a group of CASs, who have been waiting for the swearing-in of their bosses.

But there are others who have already settled in their offices.

OFFICES
Former Kilifi North MP Gideon Mung’aro, who lost to Mr Amason Kingi in the governorship race, is waiting for renovations of his office to be completed.

The Lands CAS told the Nation that he had been away because there was no space for him and one had to be found between the 10th and 12th floors at Ardhi house.

“I hope it will be ready by Monday so that I can help the minister deliver the jubilee agenda,” Mr Mung’aro said.

A senior official at the Foreign Affairs Ministry said space for Mr Namwamba had not been found.

Mr Namwamba lost the Budalang'i constituency race to Mr Raphael Wanjala.