President William Ruto has told new Cabinet Secretaries that they have no room for failure in the discharge of their mandate.
Speaking at State House, Nairobi during the swearing-in of the Cabinet Secretaries, President Ruto said the people of Kenya will not accept any form of ineptitude from the new team while undertaking their duties.
Speaking to the assembled Cabinet Secretaries, Ruto acknowledged that Kenya had emerged from a "period of immense struggle" due to a "fundamental misunderstanding" about governance and development. However, he said, "We stand at the beginning of a new chapter" for the country.
"Do everything within your power to ensure that the people of Kenya receive the best service without any discrimination. Make the people of Kenya your priority," President Ruto told the 19 men and women drawn from his Kenya Kwanza coalition the opposition Orange Democratic Movement.
The president made it clear that the Kenyan people have high expectations and "intolerance for failure, inefficiency, corruption, and ineptitude." He called on the new cabinet to be "team players, servant leaders, faithful trustees, effective stewards of the people's interests, and dependable custodians of their resources."
Ruto expressed confidence that each appointee has "what it takes to deliver on your mandates and to satisfy the people's expectations." He stressed that "the terms of our contract with the people will remain in focus and we have no choice but to honour our part of it".
Outlining key priorities, the president said the new cabinet will accelerate efforts to fight corruption, including measures like a surcharge for public officers who cause loss of resources, a unified personnel identification system, and expedited investigation and prosecution of graft cases.
Additionally, Ruto said the government will adopt a zero-based budgeting system, digitise procurement, and reform the VAT refund process to boost transparency and accountability in public expenditure.
The president assured the cabinet of his full support but made it clear that his backing was conditional on their commitment to serving the Kenyan people above all else. "Let us therefore work together in doing the right thing, and we shall be assured of success," Ruto concluded.
He defended the formation of a broad-based government, saying bringing on board political rivals, who are “well deserving”, would l help in serving all Kenyans equally.
He said it was time all Kenyans listened to one another and that every person had a role in making the country great.
President Ruto told the new CSs that going forward, they must undertake the economic transformative agenda with integrity in a transparent manner, and that they must be ready to account for their actions.
