President Uhuru Kenyatta addressing the nation at State House, Nairobi
on January 5, 2018 when he unveiled his new Cabinet. PHOTO | PSCU
In Summary
- It is understandable when President and Deputy disagree over the composition of their Cabinet.
- By custom established in 2013, Mr Ruto flanks the President at every important function at State House.
- Foreign Affairs CS Amina Mohammed must have felt especially hard done by.
- Per the constitution, women should make up one-third of the Cabinet.
Patience should be President Kenyatta’s compass as he
painstakingly constructs his government with an eye on assembling a
competent, committed and efficient Cabinet to help him carefully and
successfully steer MV Kenya home on his final five-year voyage.
But
he rushed an announcement about Cabinet-making a week ago on Friday. It
exposed discord between President and Deputy President William Ruto
over nominees and a President keen to use the Cabinet to build a legacy
and a Deputy assembling a team to ensure his rise to power.
It
is understandable when President and Deputy disagree over the
composition of their Cabinet. But it is worrisome when their fight
escalates and turns a marquee government event into a political and
public relations fiasco, and invites pressure and ridicule on
themselves.
DISTRACTION
By
custom established in 2013, Mr Ruto flanks the President at every
important function at State House. He was absent not because
Cabinet-making is a minor distraction in Jubilee’s organisation of
government, but because he was kept out of the loop or opted out in
pique.
However, it is
gratifying that he bravely and publicly sanitised his discomfiture. This
pressure will be a recurring feature of the Kenyatta II succession. As I
wrote on October 29, 2016, apart from the much-hyped 2013 pact with the
President, Mr Ruto needs a Plan B for his 2022 presidential run.
Indeed,
by stating publicly that Cabinet-making is the President’s prerogative
and that he needs space to fashion it, Mr Ruto sent the message that he
will bide his time and abide by his boss’ decision on the Cabinet to
ensure his destiny is in his hands and not the President’s.
The
DP understood that President Kenyatta would have his way. W. Craig
Blesdoe and Leslie Rigby report that when Lincoln was unanimously
outvoted by members of his Cabinet, he closed the meeting by saying:
“Seven nays and one aye, the ayes have it.”
SACKED
So
President Kenyatta sacked, then claimed he had not fired, an
astonishing 13 out of 19 cabinet secretaries (CSs). Then he nominated
three out of a possible 15. But, curiously, he did not assign them
dockets. And, he announced retention of six, thereby assigning the
sextet special status.
The
endorsement served as public humiliation of the 13. The import was
clear: The six excelled while the baker’s dozen failed the President.
Still almost all are sending emissaries to him seeking audience, a
second chance or soft landing. They go to offices, but none has his
heart in service.
Foreign
Affairs CS Amina Mohammed must have felt especially hard done by. She
lay down her life for President and Deputy and helped deliver them from
heinous crimes-against-humanity charges at The Hague.
They
cannot have fronted and campaigned far and wide for a deadwood to
become the African Union’s chief executive officer last year. Yet the
President lay down the minister for his legacy.
CONSTITUTION
Agitated,
Kenya’s women are watching and waiting. Per the constitution, women
should make up one-third of the Cabinet. With none of the sitting five
retained and none nominated, the President must deliver to this hugely
important constituency.
So what
prompted this brutal political butchery? When President Kibaki fired
his Cabinet of 28 in 2005, he was preparing Kenyans for the ejection of
seven ministers who rebelled, and ran against him in a plebiscite on a
draft constitution.
In 1962,
British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan sacked seven out of 21 ministers
because he needed to bring in younger talent and fresh ideas to
rejuvenate government. Alarmed by a by-election loss, he wanted to
regenerate the Conservative Party and kick-start an ailing economy.
DAMAGE
There
were consequences. While most Kenyans understood that President Kibaki
could not share government with rebels and backed their sacking, the
action contributed to the explosion of post-election violence two years
later.
The scale of brutality,
which ran counter to Macmillan’s gentlemanly ways, turned Westminster
and public opinion against the PM. From being fondly called Super Mac,
he became Mac the Knife. Ailing, Macmillan resigned 18 months later, the
damage undone. Mr Kenyatta wants CSs who will work to give him an
enviable legacy. Mr Ruto wants CSs who will herald his march to State
House. Both have debts to settle, but the fault line is the 2022-related
dues the President or the Kenyattas owe Baringo Senator Gideon Moi or
the Mois. Mr Moi wants to be president in 2022. There is Mr Ruto’s casus belli.
Opanga is a commentator with a bias for politics wkopanga@gmail.com
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