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| Head of Civil Service Kimemia during the inauguration of President Uhuru and his deputy Ruto at Moi International Sports Centre, in Kasarani, Nairobi on Tuesday. |
By Jacob Ng’etich
KENYA: As the new Government moves to make appointments that include restructured positions, it is the end of the road for the all-powerful office of Head of Civil Service and Secretary to the Cabinet.
Arguably the most powerful seat in the previous Constitution, the appointees to the office have enjoyed and exerted power only second to the President.
The office was created during independence as a central place where Government policy issues were addressed.
And as the Secretary to the Cabinet, he keeps tabs on all infusion of policy deliberations in Government so as to help in the facilitation and execution of these duties by the civil service.
However, different personalities that have served in the office have in the past expanded their roles to co-ordinate Government business.
It can be argued that the Head of Civil Service and Secretary to the Cabinet Francis Kimemia has held clout only rivalled to that of the Head of State.
Since he took office from his predecessor Francis Muthaura, he has waded into one controversy after the other while exerting his ‘limitless’ authority.
From ordering the Permanent Secretaries to Cabinet, Kimemia has not shied away from flaunting the powers of his office.
Unrivalled clout
He is not the only one that had reminded all and sundry that the position had the whip.
Those in the know say during his rein in the same office, Simeon Nyachae took the position to new heights, including being changed to Chief Secretary and had an unrivalled clout.
Whereas every regime has always come up with a change of guard for top civil servants President Uhuru Kenyatta will not have that privilege because it is not included in the Constitution.
The office that Duncan Ndegwa held as the first African has seen eleven others build or destroy their careers.
Dismas Mokua, a political analyst and vice-president of Sadiki East Africa, says the Constitution creates the offices of Secretary to the Cabinet separate from that of the civil service boss.
“The positions are now separated and there powers dwarfed with the Secretary to the Cabinet only taking notes of the Cabinet without the co-ordination role,” said Mokua.
He said civil service was also watered down given the devolution where most of the civil service will go to the counties.
“We are not going to see again a powerful individual cutting across civil service to Cabinet. It is the end of the road for the office where its bearers sometimes shoot up beyond their mandates,” said Mokua
Powerful as it has been, the position has not been without frustrations and pain of caring the burden of responsibility, noted a lawyer Moses Chelanga.
The fate of Muthaura explains the risks in the otherwise influential position. The case at the International Criminals court at The Hague illustrated the vulnerability of the office,” Chelang’a says.
The former Civil Service boss was accused alongside President Uhuru of planning retaliatory attacks during the 2007-2008 post-election violence.
Muthaura’s case was later dropped for lack of evidence.
Former President Moi appointed Sally Kosgei as Civil Service boss following Richard Leakey’s resignation as the head of ‘Dream Team’.
Kosgei, the first and only woman to occupy the office, had served in the civil service in different capacities, including a long stint as Kenya’s Higher Commissioner to the United Kingdom. In a dramatic occasion when Moi handed over power to President Kibaki in 2002, the immediate former Agriculture Minister was captured shedding tears as a military helicopter flew the former Head of State to his Kabarak home.
Just like her previous colleagues she was unceremoniously stripped of her position a few months into President Kibaki’s term.
She was later to be elected Aldai MP on ODM ticket in the 2007 General Election and appointed Higher Education Minister and later Agriculture portfolio.
Perhaps the man who faced the brunt of the office was Philip Mbithi, who served between 1992 and 1996.
Prof Mbithi was picked from the University of Nairobi where he served as the Vice-Chancellor and was Civil Service boss for five years.
Demoted
On the fateful day before he was demoted, the former Head of State invited him to help in reshuffling the Cabinet.
It goes to say that Mbithi satisfactorily agreed with Moi on the list of the major reshuffles that also included Permanent Secretaries. The head of the Civil Service left after they had finalised on the names.
However, a few minutes later during 1pm news he heard that a new Chief Secretary had been appointed. He was deployed to represent Kenya at the East African Community in Arusha, Tanzania. He declined the posting.
He retired to farming in his Kibwezi farm and even became a ‘Prophet’ preaching in the villages. In one of his prophecies, he claimed that a curse had been laid on his former office, and that powerful evil spirits haunted the corridors of Harambee House.
Fares Kuindwa’s four year tenure was lackluster before he was replaced by the former Kenya Wildlife Service Director, Richard Leakey in 1999 under the so-called ‘Dream Team’ of reformers hired to rescue the country from a deepening economic crisis.
Kuindwa, a career civil servant, was appointed to head the public service in February 1996. He was later re-deployed to New York as Kenya’s ambassador to the United Nations.Moi’s appointment of Leakey came as a surprise given that the two did not see eye to eye a few. Earlier, the conservationist and self-proclaimed ‘atheist’ had registered an opposition party, Safina, alongside others.
The Dream Team basked in the glory for a short stint as Leakey led it to execute a radical overhaul of the country’s civil service. But two years later he realised his fight against corruption was futile.
Arguably one of the most powerful Chief Secretary’s Nyachae was promoted as PS in the Office of the President in charge of development co-ordination.
Nyachae came up with the famous District Focus for Rural Development. The strategy was geared towards developing and creating jobs in rural areas to curb the spread of rural-urban migration. Incentives were given to Kenyans in urban areas to relocate to rural areas.
Others, who served in the office, include Jeremiah Kiereini, who was Moi’s first appointee to the position in 1979.
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