President Uhuru Kenyatta flouts ban on venue for State meets

President Uhuru Kenyatta flanked by Deputy President Willam Ruto (seated left) addressing cabinet and principal secretaries during the opening of a three-day retreat at Mt Kenya Safari Club, Nanyuki, Tuesday. [PHOTO: PSCU]

By ALPHONCE SHIUNDU

Kenya: President Uhuru Kenyatta has flouted his government’s own ban on posh retreats in luxury hotels after he hauled all his Cabinet secretaries and their principal secretaries to the exclusive Mount Kenya Safari Club for a three-day retreat.

Uhuru’s decision to go to the secluded venue for a meeting with top government officers flies in the face of public calls made by his appointee at the National Treasury, Henry Rotich, that Government departments have to hold retreats in State-owned institutions with catering facilities.

Mr Rotich’s circular on the ban on luxury hotels was issued late last year, as the Government grappled with a ballooning wage bill, the costs associated with devolution and numerous strikes from teachers, nurses, and doctors.

In an ironic twist, the President, his deputy William Ruto, the entire Cabinet and the principal secretaries will be holed up at the affluent hotel to work on the Budget and determine how to cut down the huge public wage bill.

The retreat comes at a time when the House Committee on Budget and Appropriations has rallied Parliament to adopt severe budget cuts to crucial dockets, in an effort to get money to keep the massive bureaucracy at the national government working.

“The retreat offers an opportunity for the Executive to complete its fiscal planning, with careful deliberation on the public wage bill,” said President Kenyatta’s spokesperson Manoah Esipisu in a series of tweets late Monday.

Cutting wage bill

“…the Cabinet will focus attention on priorities and analyse how best to match its personnel, resources and institutions,” said Mr Esipisu.

Approval of the supplementary budget is pending in the House, and MPs have made it clear that there is no money for extravagant spending within the Executive.

It also scuttled plans by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) to host a conference on the wage bill.

The MPs have agreed to reduce the allocations to SRC by Sh50 million; they have denied the Judiciary Sh500 million for building offices and courts; they also denied the National Gender and Equality Commission Sh40 million to refurbish buildings.

The lawmakers also thwarted allocations of Sh293 million to the Ministry of Devolution and Planning for the civil service reform secretariat.

“Although recruitment is required in some key areas such as security, this House must demand a stay on any increase in the wage bill until a concrete policy position on the comprehensive way forward,” said the Chairman of the House Committee Mutava Musyimi (Mbeere South) when he moved the report.

The closest Esipisu came to agreeing with the MPs is when he said that the ban on hiring staff in State corporations will stay.

“The ban will last as long as it takes to clean up the civil service register so that we know who works for us, we know what talent we require and which people to bring in, and which people need to leave and then we can start hiring afresh,” said Esipisu in an interview early Tuesday with a local FM radio station.