The sensational 2019 claims about a meeting by Cabinet Secretaries to plot the assassination of then Deputy President William Ruto was a product of turf wars between President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy’s camp, former CS Sicily Kariuki says in her new book.
Ms Kariuki was said to have met with two of her Cabinet colleagues to plot against now-President Ruto.
She describes a call from the Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) on the matter as “not only a shocker but unthinkable” and “in fact, the most serious allegation any human being can ever be accused of!”
In her memoir, Breaking the Illusions, released in Nairobi yesterday, she notes that to date, she is puzzled by the claims. She speculates that this was a symptom of the broken relationship between the top two in the presidency.
“To date, I don’t know the truth. I have never discussed this matter with either Mr Kenyatta or Dr Ruto. All I know is that I became a victim of a political relationship gone really bad! I know that politics can be dirty and leave innocent souls hurt when one is used as collateral,” she writes.
She narrates how she visited the DCI headquarters with the two fellow CSs but refused to record a statement because no official complaint had been lodged.
Former CS Sicily Kariuki's memoir Breaking the Illusions.
Photo credit: Francis Nderitu | Nation Media Group
“The only record was a letter that was circulating on social media. We pressed the detective to authenticate it for us to record the statement. He further said the DP had called him on the phone to register his concern, which is what prompted them to ask us to come and record statements,” Ms Kariuki recalls.
The book also reveals that Mr Kenyatta had a habit of making ambiguous phone calls to his inner circle before making Cabinet appointments and reshuffles. She writes that the former President would call as if trying to catch up with the person, flashing back to one call that he made before he named his Cabinet in January 2018 to start off his second term where they exchanged new year greetings.
“This call, just two hours before the Cabinet announcement, puzzled me. Why the friendly call and the greetings? Why today? Was he preparing me not to panic? Why such a significant announcement only two hours later?” she writes.
Also, in January 2020, before he made a reshuffle, he called her and simply exchanged pleasantries. “I sensed that he was preparing me for something. I shared this with my husband,” she writes.
Mr Kenyatta also contacted his ministers whenever a corruption scandal was reported, and Ms Kariuki reveals at least two instances where he called her to get her position on misconduct claims he had heard.
She goes ahead to suggest that during her tenure at the Health ministry when she was fighting hard to stop pilferage of public funds, some “cartels” might have fed the President with wrong information about her, which led to him calling her.
Former CS Sicily Kariuki.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
“I had a reason to believe that the so-called cartels had lied to the President, as I was pulling the noose too tightly around their necks. I was, however, not ready to give in to intimidation,” writes Ms Kariuki.
It does not help matters, Ms Kariuki writes, that CSs are detached from money matters in their ministries but they bear the brunt of any claims of misconduct. She did not stay in the Health ministry too long after that call, and she confesses that she was relieved to be moved to the Water docket.
Elsewhere, Ms Kariuki confesses that she is the one who stopped a show by Congolese crooner Koffi Olomide in 2016 after he was involved in an altercation with a member of his troupe.
Ms Kariuki also relays, rather humorously, the nicknames she gathered due to her no-nonsense approach to work, among them “Thatcher” (after the British Prime Minister) and CoB (due to her tendency to demand updates by close of business).
She also reveals that after her two failed impeachment attempts in Parliament, some MPs later approached her “to offer apologies for bearing false witness against me”.
