Who will be next? Cabinet changes trigger anxiety

President Uhuru Kenyatta yesterday fired a warning shot at his Cabinet when he booted Sports Cabinet secretary (CS) Rashid Echesa, alongside Broadcasting and Telecommunication Principal Secretary (PS) Fatuma Hirsi.

Coming a day after talking tough about impending high-profile arrests, the President’s Executive Order No3 of 2019 also re-assigned six PSs, as the storm over runaway graft in ministries hit an all-time high this week.

And as Kenyans demanded more blood in the Cabinet, Uhuru added stock to his Cabinet bulldozers, promoting the no-nonsense chairman of the Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec), Prof George Magoha, to the position of Education CS.

CS Amina Mohamed, whose tenure at the Education docket has been characterised by one misstep after another, was relegated to the Sports docket vacated by Echesa.

But it is the last-minute intrigues leading to the announcement of the executive order that saved the day for a number of CSs implicated in recent graft probes.

An early meeting between the President and his Deputy William Ruto at State House is said to have slowed the move against five other CSs whose fates are hanging on a thread. 

“The argument from one of the sides was that sacking them without evidence could amount to witch-hunt. It would also subject them to a public lynch mob. But the die was cast when one side posed where the lynch mob will stop at once encouraged with immature sackings,” a source privy to the meeting said.

The State House meeting was also attended by Head of Public Service Joseph Kinyua. The DP arrived for the meeting as early as 6am.

In the headlines

The President is reported to have heeded to the concerns and called for intelligence report on the affected CSs, whose ministries have dominated the headlines lately over questionable contracts and transactions that saw Kenyan taxpayers lose billions of shillings. “The President reportedly called National Intelligence Service (NIS) director Philip Kameru to ask for the report on them. The NIS report was not ready, and that is how the five kept their jobs, at least for now,” disclosed another source within the Presidency.

The sources hinted that the CSs are not off the hook yet.

“A new executive order is being worked on. The release date has not been indicated,” the Saturday Standard was informed.

Without mentioning names, the Saturday Standard can authoritatively confirm that the CSs who survived the purge yesterday manage ministries that have been in the spotlight for various omissions, graft and delayed initiation and implementation of flagship projects and the Big Four Agenda. In the executive order number three, the President directed that his government shall be reorganised as stated.

“That the portfolio responsibilities and changes in the structure of government set out in the order shall come into immediate effect and the Executive Order No.1 of 2018 (nominated and reassigning the Cabinet) is hereby further amended accordingly,” reads the President’s Order.

Early this month, at a Cabinet meeting when the President warned CSs against engaging in politics, he did not have kind words for Echesa, signalling the beginning of his exit journey.

Sources say the President in particular directed his anger at the CS who had been engaging with local leaders in a war of words in their support for the DP.

“Echesa was told he is not a Luhya CS. There is no docket for Luhya affairs,” the Saturday Standard reported.

The official reasons for the sacking of Echesa and Hirsi was not communicated.

The PSs reshuffled include Peter Tum (Labour), Ali Noor Ismail (Cooperatives), Dr Ibrahim Mohammed (Environment and Forestry), Margaret Mwakima (East African Community Affairs (EAC)) and Dr Susan Koech (Wildlife).

The president could however not delay the sacking of Echesa over an ongoing investigation by the director of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) George Kinoti.

He flexed his muscle after he told Kenyans to brace for high-profile prosecutions, guaranteeing that there will be no sacred cows.

The President’s announcement is however a total departure from the past, when he would emerge from State House to address the media, side by side with his deputy.

In 2013, they were even clad in similar white shirts, folded sleeves and red ties, accompanied by the nominees. With time, the funfair seems to have fizzled out as they keep off the media glare and appear to be rekindling the late Mzee Jomo Kenyatta’s and retired Presidents Mwai Kibaki and Daniel arap Moi’s leadership styles of announcing changes in the Cabinet.

War on graft

Kenyatta has reaffirmed his total confidence in Kinoti and the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Noordin Haji, lauding them for a good job done and assured Kenyans that the new war on graft will rid the country of the vice.

Senate Minority Leader James Orengo recently called on the President to deal decisively with graft in his government. “I am beginning to have a feeling that the fifth government is getting a little weak in dealing with some of the problems. When you want to kill a viper, you do not go for its tail. Other countries have demonstrated how to do this when they have had problems like this, by dealing with the problem directly,” said Orengo.

He said a time had come for the President to change strategy if he wanted to deal with grand corruption.

“If you read the report on the maize crisis in the Senate, keenly analyse the dam scandal, and if you look at other scandals that relate to waste of public resources and embezzlement, all the roads seem to lead towards one headquarters,” said the Siaya senator.