President reads Riot Act to his inept Ministers

It will not be business as usual for Cabinet and Principal Secretaries and other high ranking Government officials under President William Ruto’s administration.

Yesterday, the President read the Riot Act to his minister as they signed their performance contracts. The first casualties of the President’s ire were four members of the Executive, including two CSs and a Governor who arrived late for signing of the contracts at State House Nairobi, yesterday.

“If you can’t keep time with your employer, you have basically dismissed yourself. For those who came late and are members of the Executive, I will be expecting an explanation, and it should not include matters of traffic, on why they do not take this signing of performance contract seriously,” Ruto said.

He added: “If you don’t take this performance contracting seriously, it means we do not take the contract with Kenyans on performance seriously and that can be a very serious indictment on anybody.”
Though the President did not name the four, sources revealed that the two affected ministers were Prof Kithure Kindiki (Interior) and Moses Kuria (Trade).

Also affected was Kirrinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru who is the chairperson of the Council of Governors (CoG) and whose responsbility at the function was handed to her Bungoma counterpart Ken Lusaka on short notice.

In his address touching on a wide range of governance issues, the President called upon the CSs not to be complacent in their work, warning that he would not entertain mediocrity, inefficiencies and corruption.

“I shall hold every officer serving in government, beginning with you, to account for both their performance in service delivery and stewardship of public resources. I shall deal with cases of negligence, misappropriation, embezzlement, theft or other misconduct or corruption in relation to public resources summarily and decisively. You are hereby duly notified,” the President told the CSs.

But even as the CSs were signing the contracts, President Ruto expressed concern about the level of incompetence among them and their PSs, noting that some did not know their job descriptions thus falling short of what constitutional duty of advising him.

“Many of you that I have spoken to, don’t know what is going on in your ministries. You have very scanty information. I call many PSs, but they have no clue about their departments. The moment I know more than you in your ministry, then you must begin to understand that something is very wrong. Explain to me how you will advise me if you have less information than I do,” Ruto noted.

The Head of State, who noted that poor promise keeping by previous regimes has caused mistrust between the government and the public, is seeking to do things differently from his predecessors so that he can win the trust of the public to support his leadership.

“Some Kenyans do not even believe that a government has an obligation to deliver its pledges and view manifestos and campaign promises as empty political rhetoric and meaningless tricks and noise. I wish to state in no uncertain terms, in order to clear any confusion and give comfort to all Kenyans that my administration is fully committed to the implementation of pledges contained in the bottom-up economic transformation agenda,” he said.

On his part, Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua said the government has high expectations on the performance of the Cabinet, urging them to work to win President Ruto a second term.

“The President signed a five-year contract with Kenyans subject to renewal on performance or subject to termination on non-performance. So those working under him must perform efficiently,” Gachagua said. The Deputy President told CSs who were previously politicians before being appointed to the Executive that their friendship with Ruto will count for nothing if they do not deliver as per their contracts.

“Let me tell you a secret, especially those of us who came from the political space, were his friends and assisted him to become President, once he gave us a job, that’s the termination of that friendship. Now the friendship with the President will be based on nothing but performance,” the DP said.

Gachagua disclosed how opulence by some CSs led to the capping of foreign travel to 45 days per year through an Executive order a fortnight ago.

The Deputy President said some members of the Cabinet have failed to regulate themselves on foreign travel, adding that sometimes as many as eight CSs are away, a move that risks to paralyse Government operations that require their input.

“Some members of the Executive are literally changing suits at the airport having arrived from one trip going for yet another one,” the Deputy President said. “If you have to travel, go to the upcountry where Kenyans who need your services are.”

Gachagua criticised the CSs for not engaging the media about government programmes that are running under their ministries. “Our ministers are quiet. Nobody is talking for the government. They are called for TV interviews to say what they have done; they don’t show up,” Gachagua stated.

Speaking days after anti-government protests that were calling for lowering of the cost of living, Ruto faulted retired President Uhuru Kenyatta’s administration for what he termed as undertaking programmes that exacerbated the suffering of Kenyans at the bottom and made many people question priorities of their government.

“Although there was an opportunity to use the Covid-19 ‘downtime’ to increase agricultural productivity, subsidising farm inputs was not a priority compared to vendor-driven, pandemic-related expenditure which eventually failed due to wastage, corruption, non-performance and delays,” he noted.

According to Ruto, it was a bad policy for the government to borrow money to fund its programmes. He assured that in his one year as President, the economy has improved and hailed Kenyans for persevering during the transition period the government was initiating measures to revive the economy.