Uhuru should act, mere threats to CSs won't get the job done

President Uhuru Kenyatta with his cabinet after a meeting in August 2018. [File, Standard]

Not for the first time and perhaps not for the last time, President Uhuru Kenyatta in a rare moment of candour lashed out at his Cabinet. On his way to Arusha for the East African Community Heads of State Summit last Thursday, President Kenyatta gave details of a Cabinet meeting – the first in 2019- he held that morning.

He said he had asked those CSs engaging in politics to quit.

The president feels frustrated that a lot of the 20 or so frontline women and men he chose to drive his government’s agenda are at best doing little or at worst, engaging in politics.

It could well be that the president’s diary is full, but that the first Cabinet meeting took place one month after the start of the year points to serious issues in an administration rocked by rumour-mongering, backstabbing and apparently, distracted by early campaigns to succeed him in 2022.

And his impatience therefore could be out of the sad realisation that with nearly three years left in his first term, the risk of him leaving a not-so-solid legacy looms large every day. Frankly speaking, Mr Kenyatta has so much in his hands to accomplish within the shortest time possible.

And it doesn’t seem like it will get any better soon. And therein lies the rub.

First, it seems as though the odds are stacked against President Kenyatta and his administration: The economy is not expanding as rapidly as he had hoped to give the millions of unemployed youth a livelihood while the boon that was expected from heavy investment in infrastructure has not been realized. Indeed, the World Bank focused the economy to grow at a 5.8 per cent rate this year and rise to 6 per cent. Lifting the millions languishing in poverty will need a double-digit growth rate. Given the present circumstances, that looks unattainable.

Secondly; his Big 4 Agenda, the flagship of his legacy, is hamstrung by a lack of buy-in from key stakeholders, litigation, corruption and the slow pace of implementation. For example, the Affordable Housing pillar is tied up in court with most employers and employees resisting it; the Universal Health Care is still in the piloting stage in four counties; and the agricultural sector is forever beset by scandals from substitute for fertilizers to maize purchases; we have heard little about the Manufacturing pillar which given the barriers to entry – high capital and operational costs coupled with a slow economy- will remain a pipe dream.

Yet despite the gloomy picture, there is so much good happening.  If nothing else, Mr Kenyatta deserves plaudits for the successful rollout of the 2010 Constitution, especially the implementation of its jewel-Devolution. In spite of the numerous pitfalls like lack of human capacity, corruption, wastage and outright theft, devolution is working and transforming the countryside.

His famed March 9, 2018 handshake with former Prime Minister Raila Odinga has to a large extent, made our politics more palatable and progressive. He demonstrated that a president can rise above point-scoring and act in the national interest. There is greater tolerance and discipline among the politicians. It is hoped that this will hold and make the political arena clean enough for those purely motivated by altruism to take a plunge. The bane of our politics has been that instead of offering voters the chance to vote out bad parties and bad leaders, our form of democracy propagates it. There is hope that will change.

The belated embrace of other sections of the country could give his legacy a much-needed boost. It seemingly didn’t occur to him that half of the country voted against him in the 2013 election.

Indeed, President Kenyatta could be paying for the lack of focus and discipline in his first term when most of the time and energy were seemingly spent on maneuvers to extricate himself and his deputy from the crimes against humanity cases they faced at The Hague. It is pitiful that a lot of the cases of corruption that he has sought to deal with in his second term can be traced to that period.

It could also be that because rather than fire those whom he deemed to have under-performed in his first term Cabinet, Mr Kenyatta chose instead to offer them jobs as ambassadors when he formed his new Cabinet. A less glamourous and less powerful posting, but all the same, a better reward for failure than the ignominy of a sacking.

As the appointing authority, Mr Kenyatta wields the big stick. His inaction against the ne’er-do-wells makes his frustrations understandable, but unjustifiable.

Ordinarily, any leader in their final term is regarded as lame duck. That is not different for President Kenyatta. That is the reality he needs to accept sooner rather than later. And it won’t get any better as the jostling to succeed him gets into high gear.

But then, three years is long enough to fix the economy, run the corrupt out of town and get the Big 4 off the ground.