Lately, there has been a fresh push to have Trade and Investments Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria sacked. The calls have been triggered by his somewhat unsavory, if not inconsiderate, remarks regarding the rise in fuel prices.

Not able to prosecute his argument convincingly, the former Gatundu South MP said prices of fuel is a global matter that is determined by the Arabs (oil producing countries) and in which Kenya has no say and, therefore, anyone in the country who is unhappy with the situation should “dig own fuel wells”.

That was grossly wrong and insensitive statement to come from a minister holding such a powerful and sensitive docket in a country whose economy has been sagging for too long. However, from where I sit, this statement does not create an excuse for the CS to resign or be fired as has been demanded from some quarters.

So, because he was only being in his element. Controversy is not new to him—that is not the first, and certainly neither the last, controversial remark to come from Kuria.

I, however, do not agree with Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua who, while declaring that Kuria would go nowhere, defended the Cabinet Secretary against calls for his exit from Cabinet merely on the basis of his ethnicity.

Gachagua told a gathering in Mt Kenya Kuria cannot be sacked because “he is our son from this region” and it is the Deputy President’s responsibility to defend people from that region. “That is my role,” he declared.

I totally disagree with Gachagua. Kuria, like any other public or State officers must be judged on the basis of their competence and performance but not their tribes.

The Trade minister is no doubt a very intelligent person. He knows his stuff. He is not a pushover. He also does not know how to shut his mouth. He cannot be easily silenced. And this is where his problems start and end. His mouth. Not his brain.

Of course, some smoky issues of concern have been raised regarding operations Kuria’s ministry. But they have not hit the surface hard enough to warrant him being hauled in the probity corner. That is why I posit that it would be unfair to sack Kuria just because of his utterances. Let Kuria be judged on the basis of his performance at work.

Not because of his verbosity or, as Gachagua wants us to take it, his ethnicity. Corruption is one of the long-standing challenges successive governments have faced. The current one is no exception. Malpractices are being cited all over.

Let us go for Kuria hammer and tongs when we find him dipping his fingers in the till. It is not yet time. Freedom of speech is a constitutional right. Let Kuria enjoy that freedom, so long as he does not abuse the law.
He should be left to enjoy it because he, too, has fought for it. Anyone who listened to Kuria last week when he unveiled the Agribusiness park in Siaya county should take time to understand the minister.

Hosted by Governor James Orengo and in presence of Senator Dr Oburu Oginga, Kuria traced his political journey, revealing that Raila Odinga’s father, the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, instructed the late lawyer-cum-politician Otieno Kajwang to successfully represent him in court after he had been expelled from the University of Nairobi.

He also recounted that he attended Jaramogi’s burial in 1994 and was a year later tear-gassed together with Oburu and former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo during the Tere Buro ceremony to mark the first anniversary of the demise of the doyen of Kenya’s Opposition politics at Oginga’s Kang’o Ka Jaramogi home.

Kuria was simply telling the people of that region—where former Prime Minister Raila holds political sway—that “I am one of you”.

hat is why it would be futile to sack him today. He will never lack political space. He will not keep his mouth shut.

— The writer is the Revise Editor, People Daily—[email protected]