Why Kenya’s Cabinet Secretaries are figureheads

By MAKAU MUTUA

Saturday, June 8  2013

 

In Summary

• Take the case of hotelier Joseph ole Lenku who’s been nominated for the powerful Interior docket. This post is located in the Office of the President, and handles all critical security matters. But Mr Lenku knows zilch about security.

Every action has a counter-action. The “boomerang” – or counter-reaction – may be unintended. Remember this phrase – “choices have consequences”.

This is particularly true in the rationale behind a Cabinet of so-called “technocrats”. What’s my point? The idea may have been great, but it’s impracticable in Kenya today.

Our constitutional design is too advanced for Kenya’s fledgling political culture. Many of the Cabinet secretaries are simply not technocrats.

And those who are technocrats are ensconced in completely the wrong dockets. Which begs the question – was the mismatch deliberate, or the ugly child of unintended consequences? Methinks it’s both.

The Constitution borrowed the idea of severing the Cabinet from the Legislature from the United States. But the “constitutional heist” may have been ahead of its time. Unlike Kenya, the US Cabinet isn’t the locus where “tribes” bargain for the national cake.

Sure, the American Cabinet should “look like America,” but it doesn’t share out America’s goodies. That’s done through the budgeting process where the Executive must bargain – and compromise – with Congress. In Kenya, the Cabinet was traditionally the “national tribal council of elders”. This is where every tribe – especially tribal elites – pigged at the trough.

You got nothing if “your own” wasn’t in Cabinet. That’s why the Cabinet was a tool of national stability. But that’s changed – for now.

Unlike previous ministers, today’s Cabinet Secretaries are unelected and have no political power to steer pork to their “tribes”. Let’s look at a few.

Foreign Secretary Raychelle Omamo has been thrown into the deep end of the pool. It’s a docket in which she can’t swim, and is out of her depth.

I hope she doesn’t drown. That’s because she knows absolutely nothing about defence, weapons systems, or military strategy. I doubt she can tell a brigade from a battalion, or a general from a colonel. She may know much less about military culture, traditions, and protocol.

How is she supposed to superintend over a military-industrial complex in which she’s a complete “alien”? What’s up here?

Methinks President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto couldn’t agree on a “substantive” appointment in defence. Neither would let the other commandeer this powerful portfolio.

So the compromise was to give it to a person who’s completely unqualified, and from a community – the Luo – in which she has absolutely no political base.

That way she couldn’t rally the Luo behind her, or use her post to bargain for largesse for the community.

Her appointment – and power – is completely dependent on what Mr Kenyatta, or Mr Ruto, delegate to her. She’s nothing but a figurehead, a complete token. The “Luo” get the Defence post, but it’s not worth a measly cent. This is repeated in other Cabinet posts.

Take the case of hotelier Joseph ole Lenku who’s been nominated for the powerful Interior docket. This post is located in the Office of the President, and handles all critical security matters. But Mr Lenku knows zilch about security.

But he got the position because the Maasai complained that they were “left out” of the Cabinet in spite of supporting Jubilee. Once again, Mr Kenyatta gave “ethnic diversity” a nod, but put a complete novice in charge of security.

Which means that Mr Kenyatta, or his trusted aides, will actually run the docket, not Mr Lenku. He may be a technocrat, but he’s completely a fish out of water in this docket.

This pattern is repeated in many dockets. For example, banker James Wainaina Macharia landed in Health; a portfolio he couldn’t tell you an intelligent thing about. Then two “political orphans” – seasoned politicians Charity Ngilu and Najib Balala – were given a lifeline by Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto. Both lost their senatorial contests.

Mr Balala got the Mining docket while Mrs Ngilu was “gifted” the Lands docket. Neither knows much about their docket. But they were rewarded – in spite of Mr Kenyatta’s vow to keep politicians out of the Cabinet – for sticking with Jubilee in Cord strongholds.

There’s no doubt they will be completely subservient to Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto to whom they owe their posts. That’s because they were rejected by “their people”.

The Cabinet has been cut to size by the Constitution. Much of its power has been given to county governments in the devolution structure, and to MPs and Senators.

The “tribal bargaining” for resources won’t take place within the Cabinet, but at the county level. In the new dispensation, Cabinet Secretaries are nothing but “glorified senior aides” to Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto.

Their work will be to run “errands” for Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto. This may not be a bad thing especially if devolution truly works. Perhaps it will reduce the influence of the “Big Five” ethnic groups in resource distribution. But this won’t happen if the Legislature and counties wag their tails in front of State House.

I don’t mourn the death of the old “political Cabinet”. No sir. But let’s not lie to ourselves that the new Cabinet is one of technocrats. It actually isn’t. It’s largely a hodgepodge of misplaced professionals and political retreads. It’s a neutered version of its previous iteration.

The new Cabinet lacks the political muscle to “talk back” to the “king”. I suspect that the real power will lie with Principal Secretaries. It remains to be seen what culture of governance will emerge out of this curious political beast. Will the “king” become stronger?

Makau Mutua is Dean and SUNY Distinguished Professor at SUNY Buffalo Law School and Chair of the KHRC. Twitter @makaumutua.