•On Wednesday, President Ruto ordered the suspension of 27 officers, including Kebs managing director Bernard Njiraini.
•President Ruto hosted Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at State House, Nairobi.
Image: PCS
It was a week that sent shockwaves through the public service after President William Ruto cracked the whip.
After an intense media interview last Sunday, May 14, 2023, Ruto pledged to deal with issues at Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (Kemsa).
At the moment, Kemsa is in the spotlight over the Sh3.7 billion mosquito net deal.
This led to Ruto's first casualty of his Hustler government, eight months into office.
On Monday, the Head of State sent packing the Kemsa board of directors and suspended Kemsa CEO Terry Ramadhani and eight top officers from both the Ministry of Health and Kemsa.
Being the first major "saga" in his government, Ruto on Tuesday during a cabinet meeting at State House issued a stern warning to Cabinet Secretaries over corruption and wastage, demanding integrity in providing services.
“The Cabinet must honour their responsibility to the Constitution and the people. Corruption and wastage of resources will not be tolerated,” a State House dispatch read.
The developments sparked talk about a change of approach in the graft war by Ruto's administration.
Again on Wednesday, President Ruto ordered the suspension of 27 officers, including Kebs managing director Bernard Njiraini.
This purge was a response to the alleged irregular release of contaminated sugar into the market.
The list had a mix of officers from the Anti-Counterfeit Authority, the Kenya Revenue Authority, the Agricultural Food Authority, KRA, the police among other multi-agency security teams.
And on May 17, 2023, Ruto received a standing ovation during his address at the Pan-African Parliament Summit on Climate Policy and Equity, in South Africa.
In a more than one-hour long speech, Ruto was ranting over the mistreatment of African heads of state when attending to invites by European nations.
At the end of his speech, African leaders rose to acknowledge his point and nodded in unison amidst claps and screams as he argued his case before the summit.
Coming back home, Kenya and Singapore on Thursday signed three Memorandum of Understanding to enhance development between the two countries.
President Ruto hosted Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at State House, Nairobi.
The two countries have signed an MoU on Carbon Credit Collaboration and on ICT, which will facilitate cooperation on cybersecurity, digitization of government services, ICT capacity building, among other items.
The President added that they signed MoU on skills development which will facilitate collaboration in human resource capacity building.
On Friday, Ruto insisted that corrupt individuals in his administration will not be condoned.
Speaking during the funeral service of the late David Waweru Ng’ethe, Kandara, Murang’a County, the head of state said that if anyone is found guilty of corruption they will face the law.
"Yeyote atapatikana na kua ametumia mali ya uma vibaya, nimeambia marafiki zangu na wale ambao sio marafiki wangu kua wafanye kazi kwa utaratibu," Ruto said.
(Anyone who will be found guilty of corruption will face the wrath, I have told all my friends and those who are not my friends to work diligently.)
On Saturday, the President attended Limuru Girls Secondary School's centenary anniversary.
The institution is marking 100 years since its establishment.
During his visit, Ruto delivered a bus that he had earlier promised to the school.
On Sunday, the President returned to Isiolo County for an Inter-Denominational Church Service, at Isiolo Stadium.
However, Ruto’s party failed to get the topmost seats of Governor, Senator, Woman rep, and MPs.
The former ruling party, Jubilee, scooped all the top five elective seats in the August 2022 elections.
Despite that, Isiolo Governor Abdi Hassan Guyo and other leaders since then declared to support President Ruto and his government.