Anxiety has seemingly gripped top government officials after talks emerged of a looming radical reshuffle in President William Ruto’s administration.
Ruto’s Tuesday’s public reprimanding of ‘incompetent and lazy’ Cabinet Secretaries and Principal Secretaries has triggered rumours of the impending major changes.
This has been complicated by the imminent political truce between the President and Azimio leader Raila Odinga with reports indicating Ruto could offload some of his troops to accomodate the opposition in the deal.
“The reshuffle is long overdue. He’s preparing the team and the country for the coming reshuffle,” political commentator Martin Andati said.
Kenya Kwanza and Azimio have already formed a 10-member team midwifed by former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo to negotiate a deal that would see opposition land government jobs.
Previously, Raila has leveraged similar talks to negotiate his way into the government either directly or indirectly.
This comes at the time Kenyans have piled pressure on the President over the dismal performance of his ‘dream team'.
In what could push the President to act, recent opinion polls showed that nearly three-quarters – 72 per cent – of Kenyans believe the country is headed in the wrong direction.
This was a rise from the previous survey conducted in February where 62 per cent felt the country was headed in the wrong direction.
High cost of living, unemployment and poor governance were some of the reasons given by the respondents why they feel the country is headed in the wrong direction.
This is a direct attack on the President and his team, which he carefully assembled to combat the challenges facing the country.
During the signing of the performance contract by the CSs at State House on Tuesday, Ruto read riot act to the officers who, he said, are clueless about their dockets.
“You are the PS or the minister and you don’t have information, how do you run a ministry, a department, or a parastatal if you have no information? That is the highest level of incompetence,” Ruto said, exposing the incompetence of some of his officers.
The President also locked out CSs Kithure Kindiki (Interior) and Moses Kuria (Trade) from the event for arriving at the event late.
“If you cannot keep time with your employer, you have basically dismissed yourself. It’s just as simple as that,” the President said.
“For those who came late who are members of the executive, I will be expecting a written explanation and it should not include matters of traffic on why they do not take this performance contract seriously.”
The President also fired a warning shot at the state officers hellbent on indulging in graft, threatening to sack any official implicated in the vice.
In May, Ruto fired Health PS Josephine Mburu after she was implicated in the Sh3.7 billion nets scandal at Kemsa. The radical purge sent shock waves in his administration.
Political observers say the head of state’s pubic outburst is a clear indication that he’s discontented with performance of some of his officials and would soon pull the trigger.
According to Andati, the President has already paid most of his political debt and can therefore offload some the people he appointed for political convenience.
The appointment of some of the CSs, PSs and other state officers by the President has been at the centre of a public discourse.
The opposition and anti-graft crusader raised concerns about the competence and integrity of some of the officers to not only perform the roles they were appointed for, but also hold public office.
“This just goes a long way in confirming what we have been saying that the Cabinet as currently constituted won’t deliver as the President put loyalty ahead of competence as he had paid the price for that,” Andati said.
Nairobi-based political risk analyst Dismus Mokua said that the President appears keen to craft a team of competent officers after assessing the performance of the officers for the months they have been in office.
“It will not be unusual for the appointing authority to request public servants of rank who are not aligned to his agenda or have capacity challenges to seek opportunities elsewhere,” Mokua said.
Governance expert Javas Bigambo said that the President appears to be growing intolerant of the willful indolence and blatant disregard for common decency on the part of some of the members of the Executive, which seems to be affecting their delivery.
“The President’s displeasure could be indicating that he is losing confidence he had in some members of the Executive, for having limited grasp of programmes and on-goings in their ministries,” he said.
Bigambo added that while the President seems set to instigate changes in his administration, he has to balance the pluralistic interests of friendship, regional support, loyalty, trust and public interest.
Since their appointment, some of the CSs and PSs have been on the spot over public gaffe and insensitive comments that have put question marks on their credentials.
Reports indicate that Ruto is under pressure from some of the world powers to crack the whip on some of the top officers whose conduct have been termed unbecoming.
Gachagua has been leading the pack with controversial public utterances that have put Ruto’s administration in an awkward position.
The DP has particularly been on the spot for referring to the government as a company whose shareholders are those who campaigned and supported Kenya Kwanza.
The utterances have angered the opposition who have threatened to write to the UN.
Earlier this month, US Trade Representative Katherine Tai reportedly declined to meet Kuria over his extremist and palatable remarks about the opposition over their street protests.
Tai, who was in the country to co-lead a meeting of the US-East Africa Community Trade and Investment Framework Agreement council, cancelled two meetings that had been planned with the CS.
Later, she held a meeting with President Ruto and Foreign Affairs CS Alfred Mutua at State House. Kuria did not attend the meeting.
In May, Kuria had posted a controversial tweet calling for the world to ‘bomb Khartoum’ if Sudan’s warrying armies fail to silence their guns.
“Military juntas do not become democrats simply because of the false principle of non-interference. The AU can marshal a strong enough army to bomb Khartoum to smithereens,” he posted.
The tweet forced the Foreign ministry to quickly disown Kuria’s post as his personal views.
CSs Susan Nakhumicha (Health), Florence Bore (Labour) and Mutua are among those who have been on the spot over public gaffes.
However, university lecturer Herman Manyora and political observer Gabriel Muthuma, say that the President may not be planning to reshuffle his team but to put them on toes on deliver on his pledges.
“If you plan to strike, you don’t reveal your intentions,” Manyora said.
Muthuma said that Ruto’s riot act could have been intended to get the right results, and does not necessarily point to looming changes.
“The President is unlikely to reshuffle or transfer anyone who fails to perform to expected standards. This is because they are unlikely to fail elsewhere,” he said.