Why Kenya’s first Cabinet is a dejected lot

By JOE KIARIE

They might be haggard, forgotten, and condemned to harsh life in their rural villages. But this is not the main concern of founding fathers.

Instead, it is the way the country is run that mutely haunts former ministers who served in the President Jomo Kenyatta Government in their retirement.

When they got the chance to speak their minds yesterday, they did not mince words, expressively accusing President Kibaki’s Cabinet of betraying Kenyans by glorifying impunity, nurturing disunity, and also inconsiderately brandishing loose tongues.

To Nathan Munoko, Daniel Mutinda, and Joseph Otiende, this is not the kind of command they envisaged when they laid the foundation for the country’s development upon independence.

Munoko, who served as the Public Works minister, says it is recklessness and lack of collective focus that has incapacitated the Cabinet, leaving Kenya hanging in the balance.

“Ministers just say anything as if it is a debate in school, totally ignoring the impact of their loose tongues. They are full of lies, saying one thing today and another tomorrow.

“Again, why should they openly question Cabinet decisions while serving in the same Government? This is not healthy for the country and explains how the leadership has failed in so many of its duties,” he told The Standard On Saturday.

Munuko, 90, said this was a wicked departure from the early Cabinet where ministers strictly took collective positions in public, with those who failed to do so instantly relieved of their duties.

He knows this so well in that he was appointed to the Cabinet as a replacement to Masinde Muliro, who was fired for voting against the Government in the JM Kariuki assassination saga.

“Let the leaders take steady positions and, for instance, decisively deal with the serious security lapse in the country. Let them also learn to take collective responsibility for what Government does,” stated Munoko, who served as the Kanu national organising secretary for 18 years.

Daniel Mutinda, who served as the Minister for Information and Broadcasting in both the Kenyatta and Daniel Moi governments, equally blames most of Kenya’s current problems on poor leadership, saying no government in the world can run without a focused, united and competent Cabinet. Mutinda, 70, expressed his shock at the many glaring differences between the past and the current Cabinets.

“During the Kenyatta and Moi governments, leaking Cabinet decisions to the press was unthinkable. The Cabinet had to be tight and united. Leaking of resolutions attracted instant dismissal,” he asserts.

Mutinda says the first president could never condone the approach taken by the current Government.

Wayward leaders

“Kenyatta had a way of disciplining wayward ministers. If you made a mistake you would be summoned to a room in State House and reprimanded. He was a burning spear and was harsh at times,” he notes, albeit denying the president used to whip ministers.

Otiende, who was Kenya’s first Education minister, also called for a review of the country’s leadership. He is now 94. Noah Katana Ngala, expressed his delight that the Majimbo system that his father, the late Ronald Ngala, persistently advocated for has now been realised in the form of devolved governments. “We now have the devolved governments that Ngala wanted introduced 50 years ago. His idea of majimboism was ignored and buried but thanks God it has resurrected today. He was one of the most principled politicians and always wanted a certain way of Government,” Ngala eulogised his father.

On a lighter note, a son to Kenya’s first Labour Minister Eliud Ngala Mwendwa recounted how his father would rise up at dawn every time there was labour unrest and make a habitual statement that earned him a nickname. “Every time there was a strike, he would wake up in the house and say huu mgomo si halali (This strike is illegal). He was soon nicknamed huu mgomo si halali,” he said of Mwendwa, 89, who is among the surviving members of Kenyatta’s first 15-man Cabinet.

Mutinda, the youngest member to the Kenyatta Cabinet in 1974, also comically narrated how in his early 30s, used to sit in the same Cabinet with ministers the age of his father and even grandfather.

“Some ministers like (Jackson) Angaine were too old for me but I learnt how to be comfortable among them and served competently. Young people should join politics as this is a game of possible and has no formulas,” he advised.

They were speaking in the sidelines of a breakfast meeting hosted on their behalf by the Kenya Year Book Editorial Board in Nairobi. Other surviving members of the Kenyatta Cabinet honoured at the meeting included Charles Njonjo, Munyua Waiyaki, and Njoroge Mungai.