Uhuru Kenyatta unveiled part of his new cabinet this past week and unlike 2013, the 2018 event was an interestingly muted affair.
Gone were the matching white shirts/red ties and perky image of bosom buddies – Uhuru and Ruto – standing in front of State House, sleeves all rolled up in the universal images of politicians projecting images of being ready to “do the nation’s work”.
Glaringly absent this time around was the junior half of the erstwhile “digital duo” and fellow former crimes-against-humanity suspect DP William Ruto.
You know something is amiss when the DP’s spokesman David Mugonyi threatens a journalist (Justus Wanga) that if he wants to “lose his job”, then he, Wanga, should continue “with that path”.
My understanding of the perilous “path” the journalist embarked on was that of questioning the contrasting visuals (2013 vs. 2017) of the two principals (UK and WSR) during announcement of the cabinet - an offense apparently so egregious that the spokesman felt compelled to warn the curious journalist!
Wanga for his part must have touched a nerve because Majority Leader Aden Duale was forced to dismisses the claims of a fallout between Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy.
Am I surprised that Kenyatta is naming a cabinet in dribs and drabs?
Not at all.
This is a man so unsure of his mandate and utterly bereft of a guiding set of (core) values and principles that he can barely make that initial decision that will illustrate said set of core values without fouling it up, to wit:
What does this first round of appointments say about William Ruto’s role in the selection process, not to mention his future as Uhuru’s successor? What about this government’s commitment to gender equality? National unity? And what does the elevation of the demonstrably malleable, ineffectual and subservient deputy public prosecutor (DPP) Keriako Tobiko to a cabinet position say about the yakking about the “renewed” focus on “enhanced service delivery and efficiency”?
The appointment of Tobiko is as vivid an illustration of rewarding toadyism and incompetence as it gets; unless someone can point me to a case, any case of national import he successfully prosecuted during his tenure. His appointment brings to mind the time in 2013 when Kenyatta expanded the responsibilities of the then-Inspector General (IG) of Police David Kimaiyo to include all security personnel and equipment of the Kenya Wildlife Service, the Kenya Prisons and the National Youth Service and aircraft owned by the different government agencies and parastatals even as Kenyans were besieged by one extremist attack after another.
And the incumbency’s go-to pushback that the “constitution has tied the hands or limited the powers of the office” would have some validity if this government had a track record of fidelity to the processes outlined in the Constitution. That, we all know, is just not true.
The side-lining of Director of Criminal Investigation Ndegwa Muhoro should be filed under the heading “Too Little Too Late” or as opined by the cynic in me, “You Have Served Your Usefulness”. The man made a mockery of any and all criminal investigations implicating Kenyatta’s government – and family I might add.
Both Amina Mohammed (CS Foreign Affairs) and Raychelle Omamo (CS Defense) were also tossed aside having served their usefulness.
The former, Mohammed, was Kenyatta’s gofer in his desperate bid to avoid conviction at The Hague and she paid dearly for replacing allegiance to the country with allegiance to her boss. For this, her peers in the African Union (AU) rejected her Jan 2017 bid for the body’s chairmanship. Amina Mohammed, a seemingly competent diplomat, created the valid perception among her peers that she was too deferential and subservient to Uhuru Kenyatta.
Omamo was not only out of her depth as CS of Defense, she was Uhuru Kenyatta’s cynical attempt at “reaching across the ethnic divide”. Anyone who thinks that I am being unfairly harsh to the daughter of the late William Omamo should consider her visible absence even as the country’s top security chiefs were meeting to strategize how to counter the planned Saba Saba rallies Raila Odinga was planning – back in 2014.
The security chiefs included Interior minister Joseph ole Lenku, PS Mutea Iringo, National Intelligence Service chief Michael Gichangi, IG of Police David Kimaiyo, head of the Public Service Joseph Kinyua and KDF boss Julius Karangi. Unless I misunderstand the chain of command, Karangi’s boss Omamo, should have been a “Must Attend” for such a meeting.
Yes Kenyatta is yet to finalize his cabinet for the 2nd term but make no mistake about it, one’s first instincts are usually their true feelings – especially when they feel unencumbered and left to their own devices. Freed from any more electioneering and an arguably weakened opposition, Kenyatta just tipped his hands i.e. showed Kenyans how he feels about Ruto, gender quality and national unity.
I have no doubt that Uhuru Kenyatta will (try and) make amends during his second bite of the apple.
In the 2nd half of Jubilee’s version of “Survivor”, he will seek to address the gaps he tellingly overlooked the first time around. Uhuru will do so, not because he wants to address said gaps, he will do so at the behest (under pressure?) of US, UK and the EU. The international community is desperate to salvage their shredded reputation as impartial observers of the 2017 Elections; this after they prematurely rushed to coronate Uhuru Kenyatta BEFORE all the votes were tallied/verified and AFTER the electoral process had been called into question, not only by the opposition, but eventually by the country’s Supreme Court.
My take is that Uhuru Kenyatta is being leaned on to extend an olive branch to the opposition and include some of them in his government, not because he wants to, but to make up for the silence of the self-appointed champions of democracy, human and civil rights American and Western Europe. These countries were noticeably quiet even as the democratic, human and civil rights of the opposition were being violently violated by forces loyal to Uhuru.
That I have barely discussed the actual appointments announced on January 5 is more a reflection of my belief that along with his appointees, Uhuru Kenyatta has had very little positive impact on issues that impact the lives of everyday Kenyans since he took office.
He has been that partisan and that ineffective.