New Cabinet will also be 'eaten' if it sinks into old showmanship

President William Ruto and Mining CS Hassan Joho during the swearing-in of Cabinet Secretaries at State House, Nairobi. [PCS]

The swearing in of the new Ruto Cabinet is done, the hard part begins. The President started off impressively. His address to the Cabinet and the country was measured, in style and substance.

The delivery was calm and deliberate, free of customary spectacle and dramatic bluster. President William Ruto spoke with poise. He sought to express, not to impress. It is a style State House will want to nurture and perfect.

Stormy and unchartered waters still lie ahead. They are dealing with an impatient national audience, hungry for delivery. True to the day’s message, they must work. And it begins with change of manner and matter. Less unnecessary talk and show, and more desirable action and result. 

Ruto is a man on a tightrope. He said during the 2022 campaigns he was on a mission. It is proving a tough mission. It calls for faithfulness to the facts. The president has said, “Kenya has emerged from a difficult situation,” typified by the Gen-Z protests. He is wrong. We have not emerged from a difficult situation. We are there. Deeply so. 

Our mess cannot be solved by verbal tranquilisers. Cheerful rented crowds, and stage-managed popularity shows at stormy public rallies, will not do. Nothing can calm down the restlessness, except delivery. Politicians can no longer successfully narcotise Kenyans with talk of a country that gets richer every day, without the citizens themselves getting rich. They must stop giving imagined statistics and, instead, turn around the economy. Kenya Kwanza politicians used to say during the campaigns, “Money in the pocket!” The time is now. But it must be useful money.  

Sustainable job creation. Generation of wealth. War on theft. This is the Gen-Z thematic focus. The youth fear for their future. Graduates from various levels of education and training, want jobs. Those still in training want hope. Others want training.

Kenyans want a servant regime. The clarion call for Ruto’s new government must be “Restoration of Hope.” For, a people who have no hope will eat their government. Kenyans have eaten Ruto’s first Cabinet. They will eat the reconditioned one, if it also sinks into showmanship and nothing. 

There is also the elephant called informal government. These are usually almighty men and women around heads of state and government. Most have no formal or gazetted roles. They are cronies, home boys, and others. They are wheeler-dealer insiders. Their role is “to make money.” 

Sometimes, they will literally “make money.” Everyone in high office knows who they are. And everyone fears them. They can make or break you. 

Without addressing the deleterious role of informal government, new Cabinets remain futile window-dressing entities. Ministers are not even free to work. State House will want to reflect on its philosophy of why governments are constituted among people. Is it to serve, or is it for show, and for those in power to become rich? Is it about eating and touring the country with imaginary sugar coated messages and promises?  

Ruto seems to be in this space. His ongoing promise-making tours appear wrongly advised. He has begun “launching projects” that he has no funds for. He’s making promises that require money he does not have.

When the moment of truth comes, the country will call him worse names than Zakayo. And as the country comes to terms with the arrival of more Zakayos, there is need to be faithful to the Constitution. 

ODM is now a part of the government. There is no ambiguity about this. To deny is to insult both the Constitution and people’s intelligence. There is nothing bad about ODM being in Kenya Kwanza.

What is bad is trying to be both in government and opposition. You fool nobody. Let them show respect to the Constitution, the law and the people. Let them formalise this marriage, in line with the Instruments. They should not kick the Constitution and the people in the teeth. 

Meanwhile, Parliament is now an appendage of the Executive. It can no longer oversight the Executive. Former Health CS, Mutahi Kagwe, has recently stated, in an interview, that the people must now directly oversee both the Executive and the Legislature.

But people like Kagwe must stop talking from the shadows. They must be as good as their word. Shouldn’t towering political figures like Kagwe – but who have no MPs in Parliament – be enjoined in oversighting a rogue Parliament and a self-serving Executive? Come on, Mr Kagwe and others, get out of that comfort zone. Step up to the plate.  

-Dr Muluka is a strategic communications adviser.