Ruto's office gets more powers in latest reorganisation of executive

JavaScript is disabled!

Please enable JavaScript to read this content.

President William Ruto chairs a Cabinet meeting at State House, Nairobi, recently. [PCS]

"This will help in the provision of clarity, responsibilities and accountability of the officer bearers," Kimosop told The Standard.

Even as Kimosop opines that the reorganisation will provide clarity, the office of the Prime Cabinet Secretary has still retained some organs within government delivery.

The organs include the National Government Coordination Committee and the Principal Secretaries Committee whose meetings will be chaired by Mudavadi while, at the same time, 'convened' by the Chief of Staff and Head of Public Service.

"It is not lost that the reorganisation comes at a time the National Dialogue Committee which has agreed among other things, the embedment of the office of Prime Cabinet Secretary in the law, has retreated to draft its final report," Kimosop noted.

Mudavadi will also be in charge of three State Departments and will man the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection and the National Treasury.

"In collaboration with the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, he will lead in the implementation of the national labour migration policy as a key pillar of Kenya's foreign policy," the executive order reads in part.

The State Department for Performance and Delivery Management, which has been at the centre of disagreement between CS Moses Kuria and Mudavadi, has been firmly put under Kuria's docket, meaning he is tasked with overseeing, monitoring and evaluating the performance of all government ministries and agencies.

He will also coordinate all institutionalisation of performance management in public service and identification of innovative mechanisms to address affecting public service delivery.

Prof Naituli opined that the reorganisation was Ruto's political chess game with the civil servants.

"He is massaging the egos of his close confidants, entrenching his blue-eyed boys while dehorning others in a game that will confuse all the Cabinet," noted Naituli.

In the Ministry of Health, three functions that had been moved to the State Department for Public Health and Professional Standards have reverted to the State Department for Medical Services (Reproductive Health Policy, Immunisation Policy and HIV/AIDS and STIs control) as is the Kenya Biovax Institute Ltd.

The Kenya Institute of Primate Research is back to the State Department for Public Health from the State Department for Medical Services.

The revamped and renamed Ministry of Youth Affairs, Creative Economy and Sports has a host of new functions covering youth entrepreneurship, life skills, National Volunteer Policy and coordination of the National Internship and Apprenticeship Programme.