Robert Alai defends cabinet secretaries actively campaigning for Ruto
By Luke Oluoch, December 10, 2025Kileleshwa Member of County Assembly Robert Alai has defended the move by President William Ruto to centre his 2027 re-election bid around state officers, particularly his Cabinet Secretaries.
In an interview with Milele FM on Wednesday, December 10, 2025, Alai stated that Ruto’s new tack was in line with what other governments would undertake
“I don’t see a problem with CS doing the campaign for the president,” he affirmed.
“The foremost responsibility of a minister is to communicate government policies to the public. We have seen Duale and Mbadi running into problems explaining and clarifying the issues with SHA and the sale of Safaricom shares,” he said.
Lawyer Joshua Nyamori also echoed Alai’s sentiments, affirming that involving the CSs in pronouncing government policies formed part of the fundamental role of government policy pronouncement.
“Our constitution has emphasised the role of public participation. It involves informing citizens, consulting them, and also involving them. Politics is involved in all these. When you go to tell people of the president’s projects and how he will need a further term to complete his projects, people will be torn in between as to whether that amounts to politics or a public pronouncement of policies, but it is a fundamental part of politics,” he stated.
The topic of public and state officials’ active involvement in politics came under sharp focus during the just-concluded by-elections conducted across the country on November 27, 2025.
Misuse of state machinery
A section of opposition politicians opined that the involvement of the public officers influenced the poll’s outcome after massive resources were used to sway voters to a particular side.
Former Cabinet Secretary Mithika Linturi sensationally claimed that the government spent monumental sums in the region of Ksh600 million in the sole parliamentary by-elections in Mbeere North.
The former Agriculture CS opined that the expenditure could have sufficed the campaign for 60 members of parliament.