The Kenya Kwanza government is under increasing scrutiny and losing the trust of citizens over broken promises.

For the past seven months, since a cabinet retreat in Naivasha, the government has faced opposition and hostility from the public, leading to mass protests across the country.

In what was likely a turning point for the Ruto regime, Kenyans were subjected to another round of promise-making tours as those made earlier remained unfulfilled.

Government operations have been affected after the controversial 2024 Finance Bill was rejected.

Ruto’s allies in Parliament had ignored seemingly evident public anger sparked by a raft of taxes proposed in the legislation.

Rejecting the bill, the President spelt out austerity measures that the government would take to control wanton spending.

Number of advisers

In early July, Ruto said he would reduce the number of advisers in government by 50 percent. Head of Public Service Felix Koskei on July 8 issued a circular directing Cabinet Secretaries to retain only one adviser each and a maximum of two staffers.

In August last year, when he presided over the signing of performance contracts for CSs, President Ruto raised concerns about how incompetent some of his Cabinet and principal secretaries were, adding that they fell short of their 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,” Ruto said.
“I call many PSs, but they have no clue about their departments. The moment I know more than you in your ministry … 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.”

However, despite their ineptitude, Ruto gave them the work, which justifies the President’s fears that he had hired the wrong people to run his government.

High expectations

Six months later, during a retreat in Naivasha held in February, a tough-talking Ruto told the Cabinet that Kenyans had high and legitimate expectations from him and will judge him by a higher standard than his predecessors.

The President’s remarks appeared to confirm that he still had reservations about the performance of some of the Css.

“From the presentations, the ministries and state departments could have done a lot better because the respective leaders should by now have settled into their various roles,” the President said.

Ruto also stated that each member of the Cabinet would be held personally responsible for every decision and policy they made in their portfolios.

He ordered them to only get orders on how to learn their ministries from the President himself, his Deputy Rigathi Gachagua, Prime CS Musalia Mudavadi or Head of Public Service Felix Koskei especially when dealing with matters that touch on the welfare of Kenyans.

“It doesn’t matter whether somebody called you or somebody threatened you, don’t make the wrong decision,” Ruto said.
“If you are threatened or coerced by individuals purporting to be cronies, my cousin or relatives, do not hesitate to reach me via my personal mobile line.

“Also, if I want anything from any of you, I will call you myself and I can confirm to you it will not be about any transaction but about your performance.”

Bowed to pressure

It was not until two months ago that Ruto bowed to pressure from Gen Z protests that he decided to inject fresh blood into his Cabinet.

However, the Office of the Controller of Budget has exposed how Ruto has not kept his word on cutting government spending, especially on travelling, with his international trips gobbling up millions in taxpayers’ money.

The CoB estimates that Ruto’s government spent Sh27.3 billion on local and foreign travel in the 2023/24 financial year despite budget cuts for ministries and parastatals.

“There was inconsistency in adherence to delegation limits as large delegations were common while there was potential redundancy and overlaps as multiple trips to the same destinations by different Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) suggest a lack of coordination, leading to redundant travel,” CoB Margaret Nyakang’o said in the August 2024 Budget Implementation Report.

“For example, numerous departments travelled to Italy and France for similar purposes, incurring avoidable costs.”

The report adds: “From the data, expenditure on domestic travel has grown from Sh10.82 billion in FY2019/20 to Sh18.15 billion in FY2023/24.

“The percentage increase between FY2022/23 (Sh14.04 billion) and FY2023/24 (Sh18.15 billion) was 29 percent.

“Similarly, the expenditure on foreign travel registered a 45 percent increase between FY2022/23 (Sh6.33 billion) and FY2023/24 (Sh9.19 billion) despite the efforts to reduce non-essential travel in FY2023/24.”

The country has also witnessed a spike in strikes by government workers, including doctors and teachers, while staff at public universities have also downed their tools.

Ruto is also under pressure to review the higher education funding model after university students gave him a 30-day ultimatum to reduce the funding bands from five to three.