Agriculture, Health woes expose Kenya Kwanza soft underbelly

Agriculture CS Mithika Linturi and his Health counterpart Susan Nakhumicha. They run functions key in the life of the country. [File, Standard]

The controversy surrounding two key ministries has raised concerns about the ability of President William Ruto’s administration to implement its agenda as espoused in the Kenya Kwanza Manifesto.

The ministries are Agriculture and Health.

Agricultural transformation is at the heart of Ruto’s ambitious Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (Beta) and should translate into “concrete priority interventions to be implemented”.

The Ruto administration, according to the promises in the manifesto and now outlined in the fourth Medium Term Plan (MTP) 2023-2027, aims to transform agriculture by raising productivity of key value chains that include leather and leather products, textile and apparel, dairy, tea, rice, edible oils.

To boost the Agriculture and livestock sector’s overall performance, the MTP report recommended ‘’Increase of acreage under irrigation, continuous on-going programmes and projects, and key priorities not executed during MTP III period to be carried over to MTP IV projects that include fertiliser cost reduction strategy, agricultural mechanisation programme, livestock production programme, agro-food processing, and value chain support programme.”

On Health, the MTP (IV) outlines the government’s commitment to “creating a system of universal health coverage (UHC) that will be based on primary healthcare fully subsidised by the government and includes preventive, promotional, outpatient and basic diagnostic treatments where patients will be able to choose between public, religious and private providers based on a regulated tariff.” 

Ironically, the Cabinet Secretaries heading the two dockets, Mithika Linturi and Susan Nakhumicha, are in the middle of a storm due to claims that range from pronouncements that point to inability to get proper advice to laxity, incompetency and inability to handle sleaze.

Both are now staring at votes of no confidence. 

For Linturi, a select committee established by the National Assembly will soon begin to look into claims of massive corruption in the national fertiliser subsidy programme, which is Ruto’s pet project that was supposed to be the game changer in addressing food security and, to an extent, turn around the country’s economy.

The president has been up and about speaking about his approach to stabilising the economy. His argument has been about funding the growing of food crops, allowing farmers access to fertiliser and seeds, both of which are now embroiled in scandal.

The man who should implement the president’s plan is today spending most of his time defending himself. He has put up a strong fight dismissing accusations against him. He has said he is neither troubled nor intimated by the move to introduce his impeachment by the MPs.

“Don’t pity me, I don’t want a pity party so stop sending me empathetic messages. I am in government and the president is aware of my work. Do you think I am someone who can be intimidated?” he said on April 28 in Central Imenti, Meru.

On her part, Nakhumicha is grappling with the continuing medic’s strike that has dealt a blow to the health sector where patients have borne the brunt of the standoff between the government and doctors. Nakhumicha has talked tough and instead cultivated blame for uttering “reckless and thoughtless” remarks that have exacerbated the strike.

Stakeholders in the health sector have claimed Nakhumicha gave them the resolve to soldier on with the strike instead of managing the situation.

“She started by lying to us that the intern doctors would be hired in February to manage us and postpone the strike. She later changed and started engaging the Salaries and Remuneration Commission asking them to lower the interns’ pay and later threatening to fire us. Had she managed the situation better and with open hands, we would not be where we are now,” says Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) Deputy Secretary General Dennis Miskellah.

Other than the strike, Nakhumicha is also on the spot over the discontinuation of the Linda Mama programme, which was initiated by former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s administration to help in the payment of fees for delivery services for women from humble backgrounds.

Another issue of concern is the controversy surrounding the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF), with cases of some hospitals refusing to accept the cards.

This has angered a section of the MPs who claim the CS has failed in her duties.

Githunguri MP Gathoni Wamuchomba says Nakhumicha was going against the Kenya Kwanza promise during campaigns and one that was captured in their manifesto, which is having publicly financed primary healthcare- preventive, promotive, outpatient, and basic diagnostic services.

“What we are seeing instead is a move to draw back the gains made in the health docket such as scrapping the Linda Mama and the Edu Afya, which acted as medical insurance to our students,” Wamuchomba said.

Azimio leader Raila Odinga has waded into the matter wondering whether current cabinet secretaries understand the heavy responsibility bestowed upon them. Raila has said the cabinet secretaries in the Ruto cabinet can not compare to the CSs in the Uhuru administration.

“Unaweza kulinganisha Prof Magoha na Machogu (can you compare Prof Magoha to Machogu)” Raila asked a group of opposition supporters that he was addressing on Friday.

Governance expert Gitile Naituli says while it appears that President Ruto was loyal to his friends, which is why he appointed most to his cabinet, the president was not loyal to his objective and mission of the office.

Prof Naituli attributes the woes bedevilling the Kenya Kwanza administration to the nature of people that the president appointed to Cabinet.

“We must give it to Dr Ruto that he is loyal to his friends and not like other politicians who would abandon friends when they clinch power. But that notwithstanding, he needs to think carefully about his agenda and the kind of skills required to steer the two departments, of Agriculture and Health, in a bid to realise his objective. The two are the weakest ministers who may not help realise the president’s agenda,” said Naituli.

Charles Mwangi, a Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology lecturer, says it is evident that current CSs are giving the country services that are below par.

“It is evident that there are incidents of incompetence in Kenya Kwanza, but that said, the president is between a rock and a hard place, because succumbing to pressure and conducting a reshuffle would expose him as a leader who did not make good decisions in the start. But he needs to read a riot act to his Cabinet and probably redeploy them in other ministries,” Mwangi said.

Jubilee Secretary General Jeremiah Kioni said that given that a good day is known in the morning, the “inabilities” demonstrated by Ruto’s cabinet secretaries point at one thing, that the Kenya Kwanza administration will not deliver its promises to the electorate.

“The disasters in the Cabinet, such as issuing conflicting statements in education, the inability of the Health CS to handle strikes, and other mishaps that have happened in the last two years, show that there is nothing to expect from the Kenya Kwanza administration other than the disaster itself,” Kioni told The Standard, adding:

“The fertiliser distributed to farmers from Morocco was rejected by the past governments because it ruins soils. But this government has gone a notch higher by giving us cow dung and stones from Kariandusi in the form of packaged fertiliser,” claimed Kioni. Kioni said Ruto’s Cabinet was performing dismally.

The Kibaki administration was Kenya Kwanza’s measure for a progressive government owing to the way he reinvigorate the country’s economy.