Ruto's missteps, broken promises cause untold suffering to Kenyans

Hundreds of youth came for Saba Saba concert in honour of those who had been killed by police during the anti-Finanance Bill 2024 protests on July 7, 2024. [Kanyiri Wahito, Standard]

Outfoxed and cornered by a faceless army of angry youth that had overrun Parliament, President William Ruto almost ran out of options.

But from the deep reserves of his political hat, Ruto pulled out a rabbit. Promises. And the protestors and rioters stood and listened. That was over two months ago.

Today most of the promises President Ruto made to Kenyans during the protests staged by Generation Z have not been met while the commitments he made have been negated.

Some of the promises the President made included stopping arbitrary arrests and killing of protesters which was allegedly perpetrated by the security agencies, investigating police officers involved, compensating families of the victims who were killed and releasing youth who were arrested during the protests.

Families of protestors who have either disappeared or were killed by security agents are still combing jails, morgues and police stations in desperate search for their kin.

The recent cases of abduction happened in Kitengela and Kibra. On Monday where human rights activist Bob Njagi, the leader of the Free Kenya Movement, was forcibly ejected from a matatu he was travelling in after it was intercepted by a Subaru by three masked men who sped off with him.

Aslam Longton and his elder brother Jamil Longton were abducted outside their Kitengela home the same day and have not been seen since. Their family has known no peace since.

In Kibra, Boniface Ambasou and Moses Mwaura Njau vanished from the streets of Laini Saba area on August 2, shortly after the anti-government protests. Twenty-one days later, their families are still searching for them.

Back to the promises, on July 5, the President announced a raft of austerity measures and other State interventions geared towards enhancing efficiency in his administration, in response to the concerns raised by Gen Z.

Budgetary implications

Some of the measures included reducing ministries and trimming government with a view to address the bloated wage bill and to align government expenditure with the budgetary implications following the withdrawal of the controversial Finance Bill, 2024.

“47 State Corporations with overlapping and duplicative functions will be dissolved, resulting in the elimination of their operational and maintenance costs and their functions will be integrated into the respective line ministries,” the President said. To date, no State Corporation has been scrapped and the government has not updated Kenyans whether this process has started.

The President also told the country that the number of advisors would be reduced by 50 per cent within the Public Service, and this was later backed up by a notice from the Chief of Staff Felix Koskei on July 8 when he directed that the number of advisors assigned to each Cabinet Secretary be revised from two to one.

Koskei had warned that the advisors beyond the set number would be phased out from Public Service.

Despite the notice, the government has never announced the advisors who were affected by the circular. Instead, the number seems to be expanding. On Friday, former Public Service Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria was appointed Senior adviser in the Council of Economic Advisors, a caucus led by David Ndii who has been in the eye of the storm over claims of misadvising the Kenya Kwanza administration.

The President also appointed former ICT Cabinet Secretary Eliud Owalo as Deputy Chief of Staff in charge of Performance and Delivery Management while Dennis Itumbi has been picked as the Head of Creative Economy and Special Projects in the Executive Office of the President. This has raised eyebrows as the positions did not exist and goes against Ruto’s assurance of trimming government.

Another promise the Head of State has failed to implement was the removal of budget lines providing for the operations of the offices of the First Lady and the spouse of the Deputy President.

A fortnight after Ruto’s pledge, State House Comptroller Katoo ole Metito appeared before the National Assembly Committee on Administration and Security seeking reinstatement of Sh1.7 billion out of the Sh5 billion budget cut it suffered to enable it to pay staff of the disbanded office of First Lady Rachael Ruto saying they had a running contract which the State must honour.

Metito also wanted the National Assembly to reinstate Sh591.9 million that he said would go towards compensation of employees at the office of the First Lady, Sh389.9 million for domestic travel and other transportation costs and an additional Sh37.9 million for communication, supplies and services at State House.

He also sought the reinstatement of Sh114,642,002 for foreign travel, Sh25,668,265, Sh43,917,240 for rentals of produced assets and Sh532,144,973 for hospitality supplies and services.

“Although I understand we need to reduce the budget but we need to do it reasonably not to close the office,” he said.

Despite Ruto’s directive banning public servants from participating in harambees and asking the Attorney General to prepare and submit legislation to develop a mechanism for structured and transparent contributions for public, charitable, and philanthropic purposes, he went against his words on July 21 when he said construction of churches would continue through funds drive.

“There are people who have really pushed us to stop harambees in churches. Now how will the churches be built? The good thing is that the Bill will be brought to you through public participation forums,” he said as he instructed the church and Ndaragwa MP George Gachagua to calculate the money needed for the construction of AIPCA Ndogino church in Nyandarua so that he could issue a cheque.

Although the President directed that public servants who attain the retirement age of 60 would leave, with no extensions to their tenure of service, he broke the very rule after he nominated Douglas Kanja as the Inspector General of Police despite being 60 years old.

Ignoring directive

The National Assembly’s National Administration and Internal Security Committee and the Senate’s National Security Committee endorsed Kanja for the role.

The Public Service Commission (PSC), is also on the spot for ignoring its own directive and employing staff above the mandatory retirement age of 60.

A report by Auditor General Nancy Gathungu revealed how the commission chose to re-appoint three senior officers who were past retirement age during the 2021/2022 financial year.

While appearing before the National Assembly Public Accounts Committee on Thursday, PSC Chief Executive Paul Famba was put to task over why they contravened the directive through the retention of retired officers in service.

The commission retained the deputy commission secretary (Corporate Services), deputy commission secretary (Technical Services) and senior accountant (PSC) after they exited from service after attaining the mandatory retirement age.

In his defense, Famba said that the contracts of the three officers were renewed as they served in critical dockets.

“The officers were retained for having institutional memory and possessing rare knowledge beneficial to the commission. We will strive to ensure this will not happen again,” he said.