Past Kenyan kitchen cabinets

Kenyan fascination with kitchen cabinets goes back to independence.Speculation as to who’s in and who’s out of the President’s inner circle is the stuff of many a bar discussion.

Tragically, these informal advisory caucuses, which always build up around men of power, is that almost all those identified as belonging to the kitchen cabinet will be from the same tribe as their political patron.

Founding President Jomo Kenyatta had around him a group spoken of in whispers as “the Kiambu Mafia”. The key members were Cabinet Ministers Mbiyu Koinange, Dr Njoroge Mungai, James Gichuru, and Attorney General Charles Njonjo.Legendary tycoon Njenga Karume and Cabinet Minister Dr Munyua Waiyaki were marginal members. All were Kikuyus.

The other powerful man of the early 1960s, VP Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, had his own kitchen cabinet, consisting of Cabinet Minister Achieng Oneko, Senator Wasonga Sijeyo and MPs Dennis Akumu and Ndolo Ayah.

Again, all belonged to the VP’s Luo community — and apart from Ndolo Ayah, all ended up in detention with him in 1969, after he fell out with Kenyatta.

When Daniel Moi ascended to the presidency upon the death of Kenyatta, he initially proved an exception in that the three men in his kitchen cabinet were non-Kalenjins.

These were Charles Njonjo ( referred to back then in whispers as ‘the Prime Minister’), Senator GG Kariuki and former minister Simeon Nyachae.

The new President also had a close relationship with minister Moses Mudavadi and Elijah Mwangale, both from Western Kenya. But by the time Moi was firmly in charge, all those earlier advisers had long been dropped from his inner circle.

His new advisers — known as the Rift Valley Mafia — were all from Moi’s political backyard. 

They included ministers Nicholas Biwott and Kipngeno arap Ngeny, banker Hosea Kiplagat,corporate figure Mark Too and various Comptrollers of State House.

President Mwai Kibaki had his golf loving “Muthaiga Group” including Cabinet Minister John Michuki, Kenya Airports Authority CEO (and uncle of current President Uhuru Kenyatta) George Muhoho, corporate titans Eddy Njoroge and JB Wanjui, and the tycoon Njenga Karume, who made a triumphant return to the top.

With the creation of the coalition government in 2008, Kenya again had two rival kitchen cabinets, one loyal to President Mwai Kibaki and the other to Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

Much of the misunderstanding that plagued the coalition government is attributed to the clash between these two kitchen cabinets, more than any fundamental differences between the two top leaders themselves.