Uhuru: An irritated President failed by trusted foot soldiers

The unsurprising thing about President Uhuru Kenyatta’s rant on Tuesday during the Small Business Enterprises (SME’s) presidential roundtable at Strathmore University was that it was not the first time he was displaying anger in public.

The incident added swell to the list of instances that the head of state was reprimanding his Cabinet Secretaries in public. 

Despite some achievements like the war against corruption, roll out of universal health care, police reforms and improvement in security having been made courtesy of Kenyatta’s personal attention to these courses, Kenyans have noted his frequent outbursts based on online conversations.

It is a cycle the country has seen before during the second year Kenyatta’s first term like when he famously asked “What do you want me to do?” when confronted for not doing enough to tackle corruption.

It is however Tuesday’s public tirade by Uhuru which started by him refusing to read his official speech that analysts have pointed out as symptoms of a frustrated head of state.

“You can see the president’s frustration on the electricity prices for example. The president and the public agree it should come down because honestly if you look at our power mix, we should be getting electricity cheaply,” observes Patrick Shaw, a finance and governance expert.

“But you cannot sort things by a presidential decree. You need to sit down afterwards and make an agreement on what needs to be done to actualise what you have said,” he advises. Before accusing CSs of letting them down, Kenyatta trashed what his speech writers had done telling participants at the SME presidential roundtable that he ‘cannot read lies.’ “I won’t read this speech because I don’t want to lie. We should learn to fulfill our promises. Let us act first and get results,” said the president attracting the wrath of Kenyans online.

Largest market

He then proceeded to order a downward review of the cost of electricity for the third time in four months, asked Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko to work on the drainage in Gikomba market and reprimanded Transport CS James Macharia for shaming him over the state of Kenya’s largest market.

Just two weeks ago at the Nairobi International Trade Fair, the president lost his cool and pointed at Agriculture CS Mwangi Kiunjuri on cartels being paid with the money meant for maize farmers.

“I promise you and I swear before God, you try that again and you will see what will happen. We’ve seen what you did and we will come after those responsible,” Uhuru said.

Away from the microphone, the visibly angry president walked to Mr Kiunjuri pointing him and warned in Kikuyu, “Mungiriha ni mukuona” (If you dare pay, you will face the music). On Thursday the Council of Governors (CoG) complained about the very issues President Kenyatta gave warnings about at Jamhuri Park on maize. Despite being invited to a consultative meeting with governors on the matter on Thursday, the Agriculture CS was a no show.

“There is an outcry from farmers on when the Ministry of Agriculture is opening the depots to receive maize from farmers and announce the buying price,” said Turkana Governor and CoG chair Josephat Nanok.

In Nairobi, the price of a two kilo packet of maize flour was yesterday retailing above Sh80 in some stores despite a presidential directive to millers to reduce prices. While appearing on a television talk show on Wednesday lawyer Ahmednassir Abdulahi said government officials nowadays ignore the president because nothing will happen to them.

“Whom has he fired as Cabinet minister for example? And it is not that they are performing because everybody knows that they are not performing and that is why the president is so annoyed. If he can be annoyed like this in public can you imagine what happens in Cabinet meetings which we cannot see?” ssked the outspoken lawyer.

Among the orders the president has given in the recent past but they have not been complied to is a requirement for all procurement officers to go through a lie detector test in June. Government spokesman Eric Kiraithe could not be reached for comment.

While announcing his directive to Parliament last month for the reduction of taxes levied on fuel the president also warned public transport operators against overcharging commuters or risk their licenses being withdrawn. Before that the president ordered for the payment of implemented.

“That populist approach will not get anywhere unless it is followed up,” says Dr Samuel Nyandemo of University of Nairobi’s School of Economics.