Ruto executive order: Mudavadi loses round 1 to Kuria

Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi addressed a press conference when he took over the docket of Foreign Affairs from Tourism CS Alfred Mutua on October 17, 2023. [Samson Wire, Standard]

Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi has lost the first round in a tussle with Public Service Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria after his docket was reorganised in an Executive Order by President William Ruto yesterday.

President Ruto for the second time in a year, transferred the State Department for Performance and Delivery from the Office of the Prime Cabinet Secretary to the Ministry of Public Service. 

The Executive Order comes against a backdrop of a bitter tussle between Mudavadi’s head of communications Kibisu Kabatesi and the Head of Civil Service and Secretary to the Cabinet Felix Koskei after the latter attempted to transfer the Prime CS’s headquarters from Railways to the old Treasury Building, Nairobi.

Mr Koskei had further transferred the State Department for Performance and Delivery from Mudavadi to Kuria’s docket.

But in unflattering communication, Kabatesi emphasized that portfolio designation was the prerogative of the President and cannot be usurped by a civil servant.

“What this means is that until and unless Executive Order No.1 of January 2023 is vacated by President William Ruto with another Executive Order, the status quo remains. Any public servant purporting to allocate Ministerial locations or portfolios is misguided to the extent that they are attempting to usurp a function that belongs to the President,” he said.

In the new Executive order, Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua retained his assignment of deputising the president, chairing Cabinet committees, implementation of Cabinet decisions across all ministries and state departments and co-ordinate inter-governmental relations between the national and county governments including chairing the Inter-Governmental Budget and Economic Council (IBEC). He will also oversee public sector reforms, coordinate the planning and supervision of implementation of development partners funded programs and projects. 

The Executive order also solidified the role of Ruto’s advisor Adan Mohamed, who is now Chief of Strategy Execution in the Office of the President.  

Mohamed was initially appointed a member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors.

Mudavadi has been tasked with assisting the President and his deputy in the coordination and supervision of government ministries and state departments, overseeing the implementation of national government policies, programmes and projects and chairing and coordinating the national government legislative agenda across all ministries and state departments in consultation with, and for transmission to the Party/Coalition leaders in Parliament.

Under the new reconfiguration, Mudavadi who will be in charge of three State Departments, will also superintend the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection and the National Treasury. 

“In collaboration with the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, he will lead in the implementation of the national labour migration policy as a key pillar of Kenya’s foreign policy,” the executive order read in part.