The Mt Kenya Times 
President William Ruto and his cabinet
By: Joseph Mutua Ndonga
Worth Noting:
- I had an opportunity to talk to a number of Kenyans, who followed the interviews of the cabinet nominees which were beamed live on the national televisions. The reactions were varied. A good number of them reasoned that the actions of CoA members failed to meet their expectations. What we saw amount to a betrayal of the President?
- In eve of vetting, Dr Ruto had called on the committee member to do a thorough and clean job. Kenyans will be watching you and this is what they expect from you. To approve the best candidates who were capable of steering their respective ministries to great heights of success and shared prosperity.
Media reports indicated that the vetting of 22 cabinet nominees cost Kenyan tax-payers Sh15 million. The member of the committee on appointment [CoA] received a big chunk of money paid out as allowances. This happened a time when 4.3 million Kenyans were facing starvation. The ravaging drought in the country had been rated as the worst in 40 years.
Given this background, the first question that came to my mind is. Was it worth to spend this money in this exercise? Being a political analyst, the first step I took was to interrogate this matter. I would do this from two perspectives-political and law.
Looking at the legal aspect, the undertaking could not have been avoided because it is anchored in the constitution. Here, I want to draw the attention of Kenyans to Articles 132 [2] [a] and 152 [2]. The latter stated: The President shall nominate and, with the approval of National Assembly, appoint cabinet secretaries [CSs].
Turning to the political aspect, the Ruto-led administration had good reasons of ensuring the process is followed fully. First, this would give them yet another opportunity to prove to Kenyans they were committed to walk the talk. During the campaigns, they had promised to follow the law to the letter and spirit.
I have been keeping tabs on statements and remarks attributed to President William Ruto. His fidelity to the constitution and rule of law is unquestionable.
I had an opportunity to talk to a number of Kenyans, who followed the interviews of the cabinet nominees which were beamed live on the national televisions. The reactions were varied. A good number of them reasoned that the actions of CoA members failed to meet their expectations. What we saw amount to a betrayal of the President?
In eve of vetting, Dr Ruto had called on the committee member to do a thorough and clean job. Kenyans will be watching you and this is what they expect from you. To approve the best candidates who were capable of steering their respective ministries to great heights of success and shared prosperity.
But, seemingly, the outcome showed CoA had not heeded the president call. Instead, the committee only provided us with an opportunity to watch the dramas that played out during the interviews. This happened as some of the nominees struggled to answer several questions asked by members.
At least three of them were clueless and ‘did not meet the threshold required’, they argued. Despite this, CoA went ahead and approved all of them.
This left no doubt the members were playing with our intelligence. With this, they did not deserve to receive any allowances. Again, there was no need of spending Sh15 million in an exercise whose outcome had already been pre-determined.
The members repeated the same mistake committed by their predecessors who had served in this committee since the promulgation of the new constitution.
It should be noted that the President had no option of rejecting any of the nominees once the house had approved the names and submitted the list to him. The only option was to remind them of their high calling as he did after he formally appointed them and witnessed their swearing-in.
He told them. You have no time for honeymoon. From here in State House go straight to your offices and start working for the people of Kenya. In my government, there will be no option of failure. If this happens, you will have a problem with me.
Joseph Mutua Ndonga is a writer and a political commentator based in Nairobi
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