MPs rubber-stamp Ruto picks, reject Soi

Kilgoris MP Julius Sunkuli, President William Ruto, Narok Governor Patrick Ole Ntutu and Narok Women Rep Rebecca Tonkei, kneel for prayers during a service at the Outreach Gospel Church In Kilgolis, Narok County on August 04, 2024. [PCS]

The National Assembly yesterday lived up to its reputation of being a conveyor belt for the Executive after it approved 19 Cabinet secretary nominees and rejected only one, despite petitions challenging their suitability.

With their swearing-in ceremony scheduled for today morning, the team will hit the road running.

An hour-long session in the afternoon inundated by praise for the CS nominees culminated in the approval of a vetting report tabled before the House by the Committee on Appointments, setting the stage for their swearing-in today by President William Ruto.

All the President’s men and women, save for one– Stella Soi, who had been nominated to the Gender, Culture and Arts docket–were given the green light despite the public sending in memoranda contesting their suitability during the vetting that was concluded last week.

During the vetting, it emerged that the Moses Wetang’ula-led committee received a total of 837 memoranda both for and against the nominees. Out of these, only 181 complied with Section 6 (9) of the Public Appointments (Parliamentary) Act.

The majority contested the nominees’ suitability on grounds that they were dismissed from Cabinet by the President vide Gazette Notice 8440 of 2024, as well as allegations of corruption and abuse of power. Others argued that the list of CS nominees did not comply with the two-thirds gender principle and that they had integrity issues contrary to Chapter Six of the Constitution.

The memoranda further based the nominees’ unsuitability on alleged violation of Articles 103 (1) and 194 (10) of the Constitution.

On the rejection of Soi, the committee noted that although she had no integrity issues and possessed the requisite academic qualifications, she failed to demonstrate adequate knowledge of topical, administrative and technical issues touching on the Ministry of Gender, Culture, the Arts and Heritage.

In its report approved by the House yesterday, the committee further observed that Soi was unable to respond in a satisfactory manner to the queries raised during vetting, putting in doubt her suitability for the position.

“The nominee’s experience in public service has been marked by frequent job transitions in various roles. All the six different postings that the nominee has held do not require any long-term strategic planning. As a result, she has not become grounded in any specific leadership role in the Public Service,” read the committee report in part.

The committee also explained that the Gender Ministry is strategically important and is tasked with overseeing critical national policies and services hence “requires leadership with a strong strategic vision, cultural sensitivity, and a deep understanding of policy management.”

“Given the ministry’s functions and mandate, a person seeking to head it must be an effective communicator, innovative, and committed to promoting cultural heritage and gender equality. The nominee failed to exhibit any of these qualities to the committee’s satisfaction,” read the report.

During debate, the MPs justified their decision to approve the 19 CS nominees and called on the Head of State to re-assign them to their ‘better-suited’ dockets. “It is notable that all these issues (raised through the memoranda) were exhaustively addressed by the committee in its report. There’s not a single issue of the six that I have mentioned here that has not been exhaustively addressed,” said Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah when moving a motion to adopt the report yesterday.

And in efforts to sanitise the corruption allegations leveled against some CS nominees such as Wycliffe Oparanya (Cooperatives) and Hassan Joho (Mining), Ichungwa said: “There is no legal provision that bars the President from reappointing any person who has been indicted as being unfit to hold office under Article 75 of the Constitution or any relevant law.”

Minority Whip Junet Mohammed said that the committee “had taken into consideration most of the issues raised by the public, including arrogance and opulence”. But their questions to the nominees proved otherwise.

“We looked very much on the issue of integrity and accountability. There were allegations that were raised by certain members. There were issues that were raised against Hon Oparanya, issues of corruption and we clarified, and we said EACC has written and the ODPP wrote to Parliament and said there are no charges against that nominee and based on that we made a decision,” said Junet.

“Issues of drugs were raised about Hassan Joho. The Ministry of Interior by then George Saitoti came here and brought a report against him. Later, a report was brought to Parliament that cleared him,” reads the report.

But Makunei MP Suzanne Ndunge expressed dissatisfaction with the report, terming the decision to approve the nominees as premised on “political manipulation.”

“I feel cheated as a Member of Parliament by the fact that within less than a month, people who did not have competence were found to have competence. When 70 per cent of Cabinet comes back, I am just wondering what tools were used to determine that they had now gained the competence within a month.

“Secondly, the inclusion of the youth was not there. When we include only one youth, I think we are being selfish as adults yet 50 per cent of Kenyan population are youth,” she said.