Busia County Senator Okiya Omtatah has explained how his planned shadow cabinet will operate.
Omtatah in a televised interview aired on K24 TV on Tuesday, July 30, 2024, said the shadow cabinet aims at mirroring the government.
Omtatah’s plan
The activist-cum politician said he will get groups of experts and committed Kenyans who will be able to hold each ministry accountable, starting with their budgets, policies and expenditure.
“Basically we want to mirror government. We want to get groups of experts and committed Kenyans to be able to hold each ministry accountable, beginning with their budgets, their policies, and also to use this to create an alternative Kenya that we are looking for,” Omtatah said.
Omtatah on shadow cabinet mechanisms
Omtatah went ahead to note that there will be clear policies and mechanisms that will be structured within the political parties he belongs to.
“There are clear policies that will come, and these mechanisms will be structured within the political parties I belong to. It allows for that kind of…the constitution itself does not form government. It will either be part of the minority or if the governing system is such that there is no clarity, you go and form a shadow Cabinet,” Omtatah stated.
Omtatah on shadow cabinet’s operationalization
He maintained that his shadow Cabinet will be realised soon, as he has already started engaging other interested parties.
Omtatah further noted that there will be a structured oversight in the shadow cabinet that will keep the government in check.
This, he says, will help put each government ministry under a watchful eye.
“It is something that I am discussing and is something that is going to be realised, even today we had a meeting around the same with a number of players. We want really to come up with an issue whereby we can have a structured oversight.
“We want to have every ministry or department of this government put under a watchful eye in terms of its revenues, policies, expenditure, so that we can be able to deal with wastage of public resources,” Omtatah said.
How would a shadow Cabinet work?
— K24 TV (@K24Tv) July 30, 2024
.@OkiyaOmtatah: We want to mirror government. We want to have a group of experts and committed Kenyans to be able to hold each ministry accountable beginning with their budgets and policies. #PunchLine@ComOwino pic.twitter.com/QZCpdqMSOo
Omtatah revealed his plans to form a shadow cabinet for the first time on Saturday, July 27, 2024.
At the time, Omtatah said his shadow cabinet will assume the watchdog role once President William Ruto’s cabinet that he recently named is approved by the National Assembly.
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