The cabinet must not 'murife' from the hurdles ahead

President William Ruto, Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua and the newly sworn-in Cabinet Ministers at State House, Nairobi on October 27, 2022. [PCS, Standard]

While the 'Murife don't run' craze may have fizzle out, there is a bigger lesson to be picked; particularly for our new Cabinet.

I bet many Kenyans may have jumped into that meme without caring to understand its origin. From the video that gave us Murife, the man may have ventured into an Mbwa Kali zone unexpectedly. Instinctively, the man starts running for his life with the Mbwa Kali in tow'. That is where the owners or at least people familiar with it come in with the 'Murife don't run' plea.

Now, in the art of handling dogs, there is always a likelihood that the moment you start running away, the more they will be motivated to chase you. On the other hand, if you are calm and collected, their barking and menacing faces may just remain hot air. The only problem is if you are a stranger you wouldn't know until those familiar tell you. The challenges ahead for the 22 Cabinet Secretaries are like that dog. The last thing we would want is for them to 'Murife'. Let them listen to us who are familiar with the dog. Those who have run away from it before, ran against our advice. The advice remains the same, face the dog.

The CS for Agriculture, for instance, must start by dealing with the cartels that have stifled markets and eventual profits for our farmers. You go to some large markets and find a small clique of powerful individuals who have never farmed a single plant but make more money daily from brokering commissions.

Mithika Linturi must also open up the international market currently in the hands of a few tycoon farmers particularly in the middle east. The CS Labour in conjunction with his Foreign Affairs counterpart, must make their way to Saudia Arabia where our girls have been sold to slavery. What government would run away from such a challenge and allow its citizens to suffer in a foreign land?

However, before Labour CS jumps on that plane to Saudia Arabia, he must first check on some Kenyan employers that have refused their employees to be unionised. Some have never given their employees any contract. They pay them whenever and however they wish while taking home abnormal profits.

Last on my list would be the microfinance industry. Former aspiring Murang'a senator Pius Kinuthia has spent days doing a thread on twitter on the suffering of Kenyans and the tales there are heart wrenching.

People have lost cars, land and more despite having paid nearly triple whatever they borrowed. Reading the threads, you conclude that the government fears confronting these rogue business people. Worse still, is the high probability that the microfinance institutions are actually owned by people in government or highly connected. Regardless, the cabinet must not run away from this and other challenges ahead.