President William Ruto has warned government ministries and departments against suing each other, saying that his administration will not incur expenditure to cater for their legal costs.
Dr Ruto argues that unnecessary litigations among government agencies have resulted in loss of taxpayer’s money and called for a streamlined framework to resolve disputes internally.
He said the Legislature and the Executive have over the years engaged in internal legal tussles that are avoidable.
The President issued the directive on Saturday during his first meeting with Cabinet Secretaries, Principal Secretaries, members of the advisory council, governors and Members of Parliament at Fairmont Mount Kenya Safari Club in Nanyuki.
“I have already given very clear instructions to government ministries and departments who, for some reasons, one department takes its counterpart to court, and we end up paying huge resources to lawyers. Any government agency that decides to take its counterpart to court will pay using their own money,” said Dr Ruto.
“I will not accept government resources to be used to pay lawyers for one government agency to take another government agency to court….it will not happen. We have to be honest and honorable people because there are sufficient structures within government for us to sort out unnecessary disputes that occur in government institutions,” he added.
The Head of State also urged the Senate and the National Assembly to work together in offering oversight to the Executive and cease rivalry in their operations.
“We have undertaken that the sibling rivalry that has always been between the two Houses of Parliament and the tussle between the Executive and Legislature will be a thing of the past. I want to undertake here that I will not allow any matters between the two levels of government to go to court. We will find the framework to ensure that we sort all the issues out so that we do not have to expend public resources with lawyers going to court,” Dr Ruto said.
He urged the leadership of Parliament to develop a framework on how internal disputes between the two Houses are going to be settled out of court.
“We should be able to sort those issues out without necessarily using public resources to battle in court within government agencies. We have agreed with the National Assembly and Senate majority leaders that even the matters that are pending in court, we are going to find a mechanism for an out of court settlement so that we can prosecute the real important issues that affect the people of Kenya,” Dr Ruto said.
“We want to run an accountable government and we want the oversight role of government to be manifest in all our operations,” he added.
The President told Parliament to amend their Standing Orders so as to make it mandatory for Cabinet Secretaries to appear before departmental committees to prosecute the government’s agenda.
“We have chairpersons of Parliamentary Committees who attempt to answer questions of the Executive in Parliament. That does not make sense because they are not members of the Executive. We are trying to correct such things so as to make Parliament orderly in execution of their mandate,” he said.
During the engagement session, Dr Ruto delegated Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi the role of overseeing the working relationship between the Legislature and Executive.
“The office of the Prime Cabinet Secretary will have a state department that will oversee the relationship between the Executive and the Legislature. I suggest that even as you formulate the final amendment to the Standing Order, his office is engaged so that we can agree on how to have all questions answered in Parliament by CSs,” he said.
He also tasked deputy President Rigathi Gachagua with the role of overseeing the working relationship between the national and county governments.
“Office of the Deputy President will have a state department that will oversee the relationship between the national and county governments. I deliberately assigned that responsibility to the office of the deputy president so that we can amicably work with the county governments,” Dr Ruto said.
He assured that his administration will work closely with the Council of Governors (CoG) so as to spur development at the grassroots.
The President promised to convene a retreat between members of his Executive and all governors so as to explore areas of collaboration between the two levels of government.
“The constitution directs us to work together in collaboration and in concurrence with the Constitution. As I have undertaken, we are going to have a retreat with our governors so that we can agree in the first summit as two levels of government on how to support government programmes. You will see more CSs and PSs in your counties and they will be becoming there appreciating that you are the leaders in those respective counties,” Dr Ruto said.
Senate Majority Leader Aaron Cheruiyot said assured that they will amend their House Standing Orders so as to ensure that CSs appear in person to account for their respective ministries accordingly.
“Once we resume our sittings, we will make the amendments to ensure that sessions of engaging CSs will be presided over by the Speaker or a deputy Speaker. We don’t want to find ourselves in a situation whereby we expose the CSs to harassment by committee members,” Mr Cheruiyot said.
“When it comes to oversight, the Senate enjoys equal standing to that of the National Assembly. In view of the foregoing, CSs will be required to appear before the two Houses or a joint committee,” he added.
His National Assembly counterpart Kimani Ichung’wa promised to support governors by expediting Bills that involve counties.
Dr Ruto announced that the retreat will be held at the beginning of every year so as to take stock of what the administration would have done and to project into the future on what needs to be done.
During the four-days retreat, Dr Ruto directed members of his Executive to fast-truck efficiency in provision of government services through eradication of bureaucracy in all departments.
Dr Ruto warned members of the Executive against derailing government operations through laxity, saying that they must all roll up their sleeves and deliver on the Kenya Kwanza manifesto that was presented to Kenyans during the election campaigns last year.
