The once sleepy Kisumu State Lodge has come to life for the past four days following President William Ruto's presence in the Nyanza Region.
The lodge which had been idle for decades and was run down has turned out to be the busiest with the highlight being a sitting president holding a cabinet meeting inside it for the first time in the history of the republic.
For a very long time and throughout the successive regimes of Presidents Jomo Kenyatta, Daniel Arap Moi, Mwai Kibaki and Uhuru Kenyatta, none held a cabinet meeting that was made public as President Ruto did on Monday morning.
According to his program, he started by assenting to the Privatisation Bill at 8 am and by 8.30 am, he kick-started the cabinet meeting that his Deputy Mr Rigathi Gachagua, who had been conspicuously missing from his four-day tour, attended.
The last cabinet meeting the Head of State chaired outside Nairobi was on August 29 at the Kakamega State Lodge when he toured the Western region.
He has also done the same at the Sagana State Lodge during his five-day working tour of the Mount Kenya region.
As the President breaks the norm, the meeting is also significant after he reshuffled his cabinet a few days ago. The lodge had been idle until former president Mr Kenyatta started frequenting it.
In fact, the frequency of his visits and stay at the lodge situated on the lakeside city increased after the handshake in 2018 following his renewed cordial relationship with Opposition Chief Raila Odinga.
Towards the 2022 General Election, massive renovations were done at the lodge with a new perimeter wall being constructed as well as furniture being fitted in what was viewed as high expectations that the new tenant would be from the region.
Members of the Cabinet at the Kisumu State Lodge on 9 October 2023
Photo credit: PCS
The changes excited the locals who saw it more as a sign that finally ‘their son’ was going to be the next president and not as a normal refurbishment done for the important government installations.
During Monday’s meeting, there weren’t any extreme security checks around the lodge apart from a few police officers who had been stationed along the Jomo Kenyatta Highway in groups of three and after 200 meters.
At the Kisumu CBD just barely 500 meters from the lodge, things were normal you wouldn't know there was a VIP in town or a high-profile cabinet meeting.
Moments before the cabinet meeting, President Ruto assented to the Privatisation Bill 2023 which aims to speed up the privatisation of non-performing state enterprises.
This will boost efficiency, remove bureaucratic processes in the privatization of non-strategic and loss-making government entities and promote private sector involvement.
The new bill will repeal the Privatisation Act 2005 which gives power to the National Treasury to privatise public-owned enterprises without the approval of parliament.
His choice to assent to the Bill from Kisumu State Lodge is also significant since some of the parastatals are in the region.
They include struggling sugar factories such as Chemelil Sugar, South Nyanza Sugar, Nzoia Sugar, Agro-Chemical and Food Company, and some public universities.
After the cabinet meeting, the Head of State went on to commission the MV Uhuru II at the Kisumu Shipyard and later flew to Opposition Chief Raila Odinga’s backyard of Bondo where he is expected to launch the construction of the Bondo-Liunda Road and hold some roadside rallies.
The visit also saw Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua take a morning walk ahead of the Kenya-Kwanza inaugural cabinet meeting.
The DP who was accompanied by his security detail walked along Jomo Kenyatta Avenue towards Kisumu State Lodge early Monday morning.
"This morning, I had an invigorating morning walk around the beautiful City of Kisumu ahead of President William Ruto's busy working day from the Lakeside City,” The DP wrote on his X social media handle.
The embracing cool and refreshing breeze from Lake Victoria, the largest freshwater lake in Africa, the DP said, is a good reminder of the great natural resources we are endowed with.
President Ruto has been in the Nyanza region for the last four days on a development tour that ends today.
While in Siaya on Friday the head of state appeared to pour cold water on his deputy’s sentiment on ‘shares’ where the second in command argues that the Kenya-Kwanza administration should favour individuals and regions that backed them in last year’s election.
But the President vowed to share the ‘national cake’ equally across the nation regardless of how they voted in the last election.
"It is primitive and backward for anybody to imagine that any region of Kenya cannot get development on account of how they voted, that is not right and that is not correct and I want to assure the people of Kenya that we will move together as one nation," said Dr Ruto.
