As President Uhuru Kenyatta boarded a flight to New York Thursday, where he will attend the 70th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, the irony of life could not have been more poignant for him, considering his last trip to the US aborted midair in April under controversial circumstances.
The diplomatic paper work to ensure an uneventful flight might have been in order this time, but the Head of State has much more to worry about like the looming public service job cuts. It emerged Thursday that the Government wrote to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) last month saying it will start the next phase of the staff rationalisation process before December, interpreted as bureaucratic reference to job losses.
“The next phase of the programme entails the startup of a process of rationalisation and redeployment,” the Government said in an attachment to one of the letters jointly signed by Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich and Central Bank of Kenya Governor Patrick Njoroge.
The civil service job cuts will not be the only thing on Uhuru’s mind during his tour of duty, he still has the unresolved teachers’ strike, discord in the governing coalition and pressure of a flailing economy.
The education crisis has especially been a nightmare that peaked with his Sunday night’s address from State House, Nairobi, where flanked by his deputy William Ruto, Uhuru insisted the Government had no money to pay striking teachers their disputed salary award.
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It is a declaration that spilled over to the Court of Appeal case where the State has contested the 50-60 per cent pay rise, with teachers unions accusing the President of seeking to influence the decision of the judges.
Riding on the education crisis the Opposition, which held a public rally Wednesday in solidarity with teachers, has declared it will press on with a motion to impeach the president, citing violation of a court order directing the State to pay teachers the pay hike.
The Coalition for Reforms and Democracy has pointed at loss of public funds at the National Youth Service to justify demands the government can mobilise enough cash to pay teachers and discredit the president’s anti-graft war.
The President has also to grapple with squabbling within the governing coalition, initially stoked by a reported planned Cabinet reshuffle.
Some members of Ruto’s United Republican Party (URP) wing of the ruling Jubilee coalition have demanded reinstatement of CSs Davis Chirchir and Felix Koskei.
URP has escalated the conflict in Jubilee with claims Ruto was fixed at the International Criminal Court and further allegations that the Government has not done enough to help end his case.
No crisis
Thursday, Attorney General Githu Muigai applied to have the Kenyan government allowed to make submissions on an appeal by Ruto and his co-accused Joshua Sang against a decision by trial judges to admit prior recorded testimony of prosecution witnesses who have since disowned their testimony to the prosecution.
The President has also to mull over how to deal with other factors beyond his control like the weakening of the shilling.
But Uhuru’s allies insist there is no crisis terming the problems being experienced normal in any democracy.
“There is no crisis that is unique to Kenya. Issues like the teachers’ strike have been experienced in other countries such as South Africa. The problem we have with the current presidency is the new Constitution that stripped it of power and dispersed it to other arms such as the courts. Otherwise, the challenges we are facing are normal everywhere,” argued Senate Majority Leader Kithure Kindiki.
National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale said there were no problems in the coalition that were distracting the President from doing his work.
“What crisis? There is nothing happening in the coalition to divert the leadership from the problems facing the country. The President and the deputy are working hard to discharge their functions as stated in the Constitution,” said Duale.
But critics argue the current presidency has been in crisis mode throughout. “The effectiveness of a leader is determined in times of crisis. I think that the current leadership was not prepared to come into office,” claimed ODM Chairman John Mbadi.
