MPs oppose vetting of an incomplete Cabinet

PHOTO | BILLY MUTAI President Uhuru Kenyatta (left) and Deputy President William Ruto address the press at State House, Nairobi on April 24, 2013.  NATION MEDIA GROUP

By PETER LEFTIE pmutibo@ke.nationmedia.com AND JOHN NGIRACHU jngirachu@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Wednesday, April 24  2013 

IN SUMMARY

• Give us all the names first, Cord lawmakers tell Uhuru and Ruto who failed to unveil a second batch last night

President Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto failed to unveil the second batch of their nominees to the Cabinet on Wednesday, promising to release a comprehensive list on Thursday morning.

But in what is likely to disappoint their foot-soldiers during the last General Election, Mr Ruto was categorical that there would be no politicians in their Cabinet.

“I can tell you today that there will only be two politicians in the Cabinet, the President and I, the rest will be managers able to implement our government’s programmes. During our interviews, we have not asked any of them which party they voted for because that is immaterial,” the Deputy President stated.

After keeping journalists waiting for over two hours, President Kenyata and Mr Ruto emerged from State House and announced that they were still interrogating the nominees to the Cabinet and would unveil them this morning.

“We want to apologise for keeping you waiting. As you all know, we had visitors and it took longer than expected so we were not able to interview the individuals we have in mind. We will give you a comprehensive list tomorrow morning,” Mr Kenyatta announced.

The President and his deputy had been expected to announce the next batch of cabinet secretaries at 4pm, but this was pushed to 6.15pm. But it was not until 7.19pm that Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto emerged to break the news that they would not name their nominees until this morning.

Mr Kenyatta explained that they had spent the better part of the day in talks with Ethiopian Prime Minister Haile Dessalegn which had eaten into the time they had expected to fine-tune their list of nominees to the Cabinet.

They denied reports that the delay was caused by disagreements over power sharing saying that their priority was to identify and recruit qualified individuals to implement the Jubilee manifesto.

“We are looking at individuals who are capable of implementing our manifesto. We believe that the individuals we have chosen do have the capacity to deliver and build teamwork,” Mr Ruto stated.

He was responding to concerns expressed on Wednesday by medical practitioners regarding the nominee for the Cabinet Secretary in charge of Health, Mr James Macharia.

The medical practitioners had protested that Mr Macharia, a career banker, was ill-equipped to run the health sector and demanded the appointment of an individual with a medical background.

Among the politicians who had been highly tipped to make it to the 18-member Jubilee Coalition government include former Cabinet ministers Charity Ngilu, Chirau Ali Mwakwere, Sam Ongeri and Najib Balala.

Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto had also struck post-election alliances with Amani Coalition leaders Musalia Mudavadi and Eugene Wamalwa, raising expectations that they could include them in their Cabinet. That looks unlikely following Wednesday’s announcement by Mr Ruto.

Meanwhile, two opposition MPs yesterday said the House should not start vetting Cabinet nominees until all 18 are named.

With President Kenyatta having named only four nominees to the planned 18-member Cabinet, ODM MPs Jakoyo Midiwo (Gem) and John Mbadi (Suba) doubted that the entire Cabinet would be in place in time for the presentation of the estimates.

“We cannot start the vetting until the entire Cabinet is named,” Mr Midiwo told journalists in the morning. “If you tell us you have given us four nominees to vet, how shall we tell whether there is regional or gender balance?”

Mr Midiwo said the Committee on Appointments would start work immediately the entire Cabinet list is known, even if that means starting work at night.

President Kenyatta said as he paraded the four nominees Tuesday evening that the vetting could start since Parliament had just a few hours earlier approved the membership of the Committee.But Mr Midiwo said it is the President and not Parliament that was the cause for the delay in the appointment of the Cabinet.

In the House later in the afternoon, Mr Mbadi argued that even if Henry Rotich’s nomination as Secretary for Treasury is approved, it would still be impossible for him to present the Budget to the House via the Budget Committee on time. The Budget has to be approved by the Cabinet before it is taken to the National Assembly, he said,  and the Cabinet can only be considered to be in place if at least 14 members have been nominated and appointed.

“The honeymoon is over. We now need work. We don’t want posturing. We don’t want Obama style of walking. What we want (is for you to) give us the Cabinet so that the operations of government can continue,” said Mr Mbadi.