President William Ruto (left) Top row- New Interior CS Kipchumba Murkomen, Cabinet nominees William Kabogo (ICT), Mutahi Kagwe (Agriculture) and Lee Njiru (Trade).
Christmas Eve should be the appropriate occasion to take a break from the usual toxic politics, and convey messages of goodwill all round.
However, it would be remiss of me to do so before debunking a monumental lie. We have been fed and swallowed hook, line and sinker, the patent falsehood that President William Ruto’s recent appointments to the Cabinet and other senior public service jobs indicated a political alliance with his predecessor, President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Our newspapers have gone into overdrive with almost daily headlines on ‘Uhuru allies’ landing plum jobs, and breathless analysis on what the supposed alliance means for the political landscape leading up to the 2027 elections.
No one has stopped to ponder the simple, fact that the new cabinet nominees, Mutahi Kagwe at Agriculture & Livestock Development, Lee Kinyanjui at Investments, Trade & Industry and William Kabogo at Information, Communications Technology & The Digital Economy, are NOT Mr Kenyatta’s political allies, NOT his nominees to the Cabinet, and NOT even members or senior officials of his faction of the Jubilee Party.
Those are Ruto’s men, not Uhuru’s men; fellows handpicked by the president as part of the effort to appease the restive Mt Kenya region which propelled him to electoral victory in 2022, but is now deserting in droves following the impeachment of Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua.
Cabinet nominees
Description of the new cabinet nominees as Mr Kenyatta’s allies is part of an elaborate ruse that few have bothered to cross-check. It started with President Ruto’s December 9 visit to the Ichaweri rural home of his predecessor, which produced competing versions of what actually transpired. The meeting was touted as a revival of the famous UhuRuto bromance which galloped to presidential electoral victory in 2013 but turned sour soon after securing a second term in 2017.
However, little attention was paid to the fact that Mr Kenyatta’s office was quick to release a statement at variance with the narrative spun by State House. The former president was apparently keen to disabuse the notion that he was about to enter a political alliance with his successor.
Otherwise, it was clear that the meetings was long on general talk, but very short on specifics towards a political union or Mr Kenyatta getting cabinet slots for his allies.
When President Ruto made his new cabinet picks 10 days later, however, the media and everybody else put two and two together, and came up with six, swallowing wholesale the lie that the individuals named were Mr Kenyatta’s nominees.
They were not, the only common factor being that they were selected from his Mt Kenya backyard.
It is now emerging from conversations with Mr Kenyatta’s aides that the matter of his giving blessings for the nominations was broached. The former president had no objection to Dr Ruto selecting whoever he wanted if that would help counter the perception of ‘41 against 1’ political strategy driven by State House to isolate the Mt Kenya region in the run up to the next elections.
Political union
Mr Kenyatta was however clear that he was not interested in having any of his Jubilee Party officials or other political allies enter into any political union with the president.
Indeed, it is clear that those picked have no political affiliation with Mr Kenyatta, unlike the broad-based government in which key officials from ‘former’ opposition leader Raila Odinga’s ODM party joined the cabinet.
Mr John Mbadi who got the National Treasury docket was the ODM chairman. Mr Ali Hassan Joho at the Ministry of Mining and Blue Economy and Mr Wycliffe Oparanya at Ministry of Cooperatives were Deputy Party Leaders. Mr Opiyo Wandayi who got the Energy Ministry was Minority Leader in the National Assembly.
By contrast, Mr Kabogo, the former Kiambu Governor, has his own political out, Tujibebe Wakenya Party, which is actually a member of President Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza coalition.
Mr Kinyanjui, the former Nakuru Governor, also has his own party, the Ubuntu Peoples Forum. Mr Kagwe, who served as President Kenyatta’s Health minister after a term as Nyeri Senator, has no current political affiliations, and if appointed will hold the distinction of being the only man to serve in the cabinet of three successive administrations. He makes himself available to all.
If asked to give truthful answers, all three would affirm that they are their own men of independent mien and not surrogates or hirelings of Mr Kenyatta or anybody else. However, it serves them to keep up the fiction of being his allies and cabinet nominees if that will somehow shield them from hostile home ground.
Merry Christmas, my dear readers.
[email protected]; @MachariaGaitho
