Protesters during anti-Finance Bill demonstrations on Kimathi Street, Nairobi on June 18, 2024.
The questions were as many as there were people asking them. Why did your party thwart the impeachment of Mr Mithika Linturi whose ministry had been embroiled in a fake fertiliser scandal?
Why did you appoint Mr Kipchumba Murkomen, a lawyer, to oversee the Transport and Public Works ministry that requires an engineer?
These questions were directed at President William Ruto last Friday in an X engagement with Kenya’s young people, a significant number being Gen Zs.
Some people also questioned Mr Murkomen’s flaunting of wealth. Others took issue with the tone of Ms Susan Nakhumicha as she commented on the initiatives to fundraise for those injured or killed during the recent anti-government protests.
President Ruto has said that he has many sources of information, but this was by far the most direct in telling him the issues that the Gen Zs had with his Cabinet.
It added to the messages encoded in hashtags, written on placards and even printed on T-shirts as youth protested starting from June 18.
“When I was growing up, at the time of Kibaki, I used to associate being a minister with some smart people,” said one of the speakers at the X Spaces. “Suddenly, these days, you have people, the best they can deliver is just abuses and (are) just too mouthy.”
Marvin Mabonga was not mincing his words: “I want to let you know that in your Cabinet currently, we are having so many incompetent Cabinet secretaries.” He went on: “Where is the conjunction between the Ministry of Transport and a lawyer? In that department, you should be appointing a person who has done even civil engineering, who knows so much about construction.”
Another widely held demand was that of disbanding the entire Cabinet rather than merely reshuffling.
“Don’t reshuffle the Cabinet or the CS, moving from one ministry to the other. We’ve seen that one before, what we are seeing is just transferring incompetence from one field to another department, another ministry. Please get new faces. You have a lot of people around you,” said one of the speakers.
On social media, other issues that Gen Z were raising with the Cabinet was its size, comparing with countries like the US and China, the sentiment was that 21 CSs are too many.
Much as he admitted in a June 30 interview that his Cabinet “maybe could have done better”, the President was quite protective of his ministers as of last week.
On the issue of Mr Linturi, he insisted that the people directly involved in the fertiliser scandal were in court.
In the same breath, he promised that if any CS or principal secretary was ever charged in court, he would fire them.
“I will not wait for the court process because there will be an element of confirmation that these are people who are corrupt,” he said.
On the issue of dismissing the entire Cabinet, President Ruto was guarded. “I know you have said that I should not make changes, I should clean the slate. But you see, you don’t have the job I have.”
On the portfolio mismatch, Dr Ruto said: “I am here as a scientist, right? And many other people are doing many things from fields they did not necessarily train in, because at a certain level, it is a management issue. It is a leadership issue.”
Further, the President conceded that there was a problem on the matter of opulence and arrogance in his Cabinet and among his allies.
The President’s decision to send home the entire Cabinet was a complete change from his convictions about his Cabinet.
Perhaps the sting was in this remark he made on Friday: “I have heard you on some of the incompetent people you have said, some of the corrupt people you have said. I have listened to you.”
