Ruto's MPs turn the fury on his Cabinet to appease restless voters

Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah. [File, Standard]

The National Assembly, long accused of being a rubber stamp for the Executive, has erupted in open rebellion, with senior Members of Parliament (MPs) from President William Ruto’s own coalition launching scathing attacks on his Cabinet Secretaries over chaotic policies and contentious privatisation plans, signalling a fierce political realignment as the 2027 election draws near.

The just-concluded annual parliamentary retreat in Naivasha, ostensibly for strategic planning, transformed into a public arena for settling scores, with the powerful Ruto, allied Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah leading the charge.

He branded the Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba and his Principal Secretary as the “most clueless,” in a dramatic session that laid bare the deep fissures within the ruling Kenya Kwanza alliance.

Analysts say the clashes underscore a pivotal shift. With just 18 months until the next general election, lawmakers are keenly aware that their political survival hinges on delivering for constituents and being seen to hold a sometimes-unpopular government to account. 

The retreat revealed a legislature suddenly eager to flex its constitutional oversight muscles, targeting failures in education, healthcare, and the sensitive sale of State assets like telecoms giant Safaricom. 

A primary flashpoint is the government’s accelerated drive to privatise state corporations to raise revenue and reduce fiscal burdens. MPs, wary of public backlash over the sale of national assets, are pushing back hard. 

The Chair of the Budget and Appropriations Committee, and a member of the ruling UDA party coalition, Molo MP Kuria Kimani, issued a stark warning regarding plans to sell stakes in the Kenya Pipeline Company and other entities.

“Once assets are divested, the consequences are permanent,” he told the retreat. He stressed parliament would be judged for either “safeguarding public interest or allowing irreversible decisions without adequate scrutiny.”

Kimani framed the push as a fiscal necessity, not ideology. 

He pointed to the new Privatisation Act (2025) and Government-Owned Enterprises Act (2025) as tools to ensure parliamentary supremacy. 

“No State asset can now be privatised without explicit consent of the National Assembly,” Kimani stated

The most explosive confrontation centred on the beleaguered education sector.  Ichung’wah launched a blistering critique on CS Ogamba and his team over the botched transition to the new curriculum, inequitable teacher distribution, and corruption in school programmes.

“Why would a school with 100 students have 28 teachers and the school next door has 600 students without teachers?” Ichung’wah demanded. 

 “You and your PS, you have the most clueless PS in the Ministry of Education. He only sits in Nairobi and has no idea what is happening on the ground. Get out of your offices.”

He accused the ministry of issuing circulars on fees and uniforms that are widely ignored, fueling graft. “The lunch program is the bedrock of corruption in schools... You’ll find a school that charges Sh3,000, others charge Sh8,000, and they’re in the same locality,” he said.

MPs piled on, citing a litany of failures. They cited 400,000 students yet to join Grade 10 due to fees, skewed infrastructure funding marginalising poor regions, and exploitative uniform monopolies. 

Ogamba’s admission that no actuarial study had ever determined the true cost of educating a Kenyan child from primary to university further incensed legislators.

Analysts say the aggressive posture marks a stark contrast to the widespread perception of this parliament as a compliant “den of graft,” a term used by Ruto himself in August 2025 when he accused MPs of running committees as “money-minting rings.” That rebuke, a damning audit report, and a recent pastoral letter from church leaders have left the institution’s reputation in tatters. 

The National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK) declared in December 2025 that over 80 per cent of Kenyans believe the country is on the wrong track and that MPs have “wholesomely failed the people of Kenya, lost legitimacy, and have become perpetrators of injustice.”

Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu’s latest report accused Parliament of “sleeping on the job,” noting that of thousands of audit reports submitted since 2012, only two performance audits had ever been discussed.

The retreat’s theme, “Delivering the Fifth Session’s Agenda and Preparing for Transition,” was thus an explicit attempt to craft a legacy in the final 18 months of the term. Speaker Moses Wetang’ula called it a “clinical audit” and a “constitutional imperative.”

Analysts say the public clashes are a deliberate strategy by MPs to distance themselves from an executive grappling with economic headwinds and policy missteps, and to rebuild their individual brands ahead of a tough re-election battle.

“This is less about policy and more about political survival,” said a Naivasha-based political analyst Njoroge Mwangi. “The MPs, especially those in the ruling coalition, need to show they are not part of the problem.