Uhuru unveils new cabinet structure

By Biketi Kikechi, News Editor

NAIROBI, KENYA: President Uhuru Kenyatta and Mr William Ruto will be naming a 18-member Cabinet — down from 44 portfolios — which include two separate ministries under their two Executive offices.

With the country anxiously waiting for new list of Cabinet Secretaries, replacing ministers, Uhuru through a Presidential Press Service news dispatch gave a breakdown of his “lean and effective structure”.

In a departure from tradition, they also came up with American-like new offices henceforth to be referred to as State Departments, whose substantive heads will report to Cabinet Secretaries.

Calling the newly-structured Cabinet the “National Executive”, Uhuru explained that the Presidency would manifest itself in two “Executive Offices”, shared between himself and the Deputy President.

This is significant as it draws on the Constitution which enhanced the powers of the Deputy President over and above those of the previous Vice Presidents, even allowing the deputy to act as the substantive national chief executive should the office of President become vacant in unfortunate circumstances anytime before the holder completes his or her term.

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Take charge

The Uhuru administration will also have some State Departments, which would operate under the combined ministries as part of the National Executive.

The President and his deputy will have the Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government and the Ministry of Devolution and Planning.

It was not specified who between Uhuru and Deputy President William Ruto will take charge of the National and Devolved Governments.

From the order of placement in the statement it appears Uhuru will take charge of the National Government while Ruto will supervise Devolved units. Gone are the two powerful portfolios of Internal Security and Provincial Administration, which would now probably fall in the Interior and Coordination of National Government ministry, and Ministry of Devolution and Planning respectively. Alternatively, what was Internal Security could fall under the retained but expanded Ministry of Defence. This will however become clear when Uhuru finally releases the list bearing distribution of departments, parastatals, statutory bodies and public service organisations or institutions today.

This follows confidential information secured from a highly placed source that the mandate of each Ministry would follow on Friday.

The Constitution put the ceiling of ministries at 22, and that, therefore, gives Uhuru the luxury of creating another four ministries should he wish to do so.

50-50 basis

State House receives its own allocation from Treasury in the budget but was not listed among the departments in the new ministries.

Among the casualties, was the Ministry of Justice, which now becomes a department in the office of the Attorney General, whose status was not clarified since it was not among the 18 listed as full ministries.

Before the March 4 presidential election, Uhuru and Ruto agreed to share the government on a 50-50 basis and that therefore means each will get nine positions from the pie.

Kenyans had expected the President to announce the list of the Cabinet Secretaries on Thursday but he instead opted to whet their appetite by releasing the new structure.

Sources said the President was buying time because of the delayed constitution of the Appointments Committee in Parliament, which will vet all the names released by President.

Other ministries left unaltered in the new government include that of Defence, Foreign Affairs, The National Treasury, Health and Industrialisation, which will be called the Ministry of Industrialisation and Enterprise Development.

In the previous setup Health had been split into two Ministries; Medical Services and Public Health.

Also left intact are the Ministry of Information which has been renamed Information, Communication and Technology, the Ministry of Labour renamed Labour, Social Security and Services and the Ministry of Energy now the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum. This could be in anticipation of Kenya joining the oil producing countries soon with the discovery of fuel deposits in Turkana County.

The Ministries of Agriculture, Livestock Development and Fisheries were all amalgamated and will now be known as the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries.

The Ministry will however have three departments, namely the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Livestock and the Department of Fisheries.

The Ministry of Tourism was retained but it will be known as the Ministry of Tourism and Commerce while the Ministry of Trade was scrapped.

The Ministry of Education and that of Higher Education were merged to create the Ministry of Education, which will have the Department of Education and Department of Science and Technology.

Lumped together

The Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Roads were also joined to create the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, which will have the Department of Transport Services and the Department of Infrastructure.

The ministries of Environment and Mineral Resource, Water and Forestry were all lumped together under the Ministry of Environment, Water and Natural Resources.

Also grouped into one are the Ministries of Land, Housing and Nairobi Metropolitan, which now fall under the Ministry of Land, Housing and Urban Development.

President Uhuru and his deputy also brought together the Ministries of Sports, National Heritage and Culture to make the Ministry of Sports, Culture and the Arts.

Last week, President Uhuru said the government’s main focus would be on the efficient provision of services to the people and not merely the ownership and management of assets.

“To this end my focus is to achieve efficiency and effectiveness in the services delivered by my government” said Uhuru in his address to joint session of Senate and National Assembly on Tuesday.

He also promised the government will ensure food security by modernising the agricultural sector through improved financing, irrigation, research and development.

He also promised the return of extension services to enable farmers to move from subsistence to commercial farming.

The three departments of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries will play those roles it now emerges from the new structure.

The statement released by Uhuru’s press team also pointed out that he gave special focus to the Youth, Gender, Devolution, planning as well as national cohesion and integration, which were brought under the Presidency. Also given special focus is mining which is now a stand-alone ministry. Information, Communication and Technology ministry as well as Sports.