We are now done with swearing in the next president Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto and their Cabinet. The two now have the instruments of power. Their immediate next assignment is ensuring their newly sworn-Cabinet delivers. The long and sensitive journey of implementing the Jubilee Government manifesto begins in earnest.
Let me offer unsolicited advice to all those to whom Cabinet posts landed in Uhuru’s Cabinet. First, I wish to implore those men and women to serve Kenyans, not to rule or lord it over them. I wish to do so especially to those who have not worked with or interacted with Uhuru Kenyatta closely before.
I met Uhuru Kenyatta when I was a reporter at Capital FM in 2002. That was the year he vied for country’s presidency on a KANU ticket in an election won by Mwai Kibaki on a NARC ticket. In my interaction both professional and socially, I have come to isolate a number of things the son of Jomo detests like the plague.
Top on the list is theft of public resources. Uhuru has no time for people with as much as hints of thirst and hunger for resources meant to benefit the public. He cannot stand people with long itchy fingers trained to pinch from public coffers. Ask anyone who has interacted with Uhuru on professional matters and he or she will confess that the man will dress you down and most likely end your friendship with you there and then.
One officer I aknow who was employed to serve Kenyatta in the Ministry of Finance once confided in me that the day he reported he was reprimanded thus, “I hope you are ready to work and that you did not come to do some funny things”. At Treasury, contractors and other service providers who inflated payments soon knew that the man at the helm would neither entertain kickbacks nor listen to propoals geared towards fleecing the government. That the PS at Treasury was (still is) Joseph Kinyua did not make matters any better for economic hitmen and saboteurs. And that’s how the Treasury duo managed Ministry professionals whilst jealously protecting tax payers money.
Those who thought appointment to any portfolio is a license to “your-time-to-eat” festival are best advised to resign even before they take up their appointments formely.
One other quality that makes UK, as he is fondly referred to in many quarters, is tribal jingoism. In his political career, Uhuru has worked with people from Kenya’s entire ethnic spectrum. Many have attempted to drag him into the “my people” debate but the warning has been a consistent, “Kenyans must unite if this country has to move forward.” Uhuru is said to have told some of his friends that “Kenya is enough for all of us and God knows why he gave the country to all 42 tribes”.
On this front I know merit will be the central guiding factor in so far as the much-awaited appointments go be it at the ministry level, in parastatals or foreign missions. Therefore, those who will be appointed to serve Uhuru’s government and have the opportunity to appoint officers to various positions should take the cue and steer clear of extending appointments to their relatives, cronies and tribesmen.
Mwanake “young man” as President Kenyatta is sometimes referred to, denotes freshness. Yet Uhuru loathes pettiness and back biting in a manner that reminds one of the ways of the old and wise. This attribute was most likely inherited from his father the Late Mzee Jomo Kenyatta. Those who worked closely with Mzee will tell you that no one went to see Jomo with romours and left unscathed.
A case is told of a prominent politician who went to backbite his peer in State House during Jomo’s time to which Mzee listened keenly to the allegations. After the accuser was done, Mzee bid the minister goodbye and immediately placed a call on the accused and told him to join him for breakfast the following day. He then called the accuser and told him to join him for breakfast the following day as well.
Both ministers met Jomo in the presence of a witness. Jomo proceeded to tell the accuser to repeat his story in the presence of the accused and the witness in the same words the accuser had used the previous day. I am told the accuser stammered and fambled for words as the old man’s rage hit the roof. The accuser was reprimanded and ordered to slaughter a goat for the man he had accused and further asked to apologize to him in front of the wazee. After that incident people around Mzee knew better than veer off from substance. Uhuru applies the same template and those close to him will attest to the fact that the man has absolutely no time for vacuous tattle and hearsay.
For the lucky few who will be appointed to serve in Uhuruto government if you want a peaceful tenure then you must exorcise the demon of corruption from within you. You must quickly lose your tribal prism and tame your mouth, ears and appetite from indiscriminate love of romours and petty pursuits. If you do not, my bet is that Uhuru and Ruto will not only fire you but are also likely to put you behind bars.
Mr Samuel Chege Maina is the Deputy editor- in-chief at Kenya Broadcasting Corporation
Email. Samuel.maina@kbc.co.ke
