President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Cabinet is split amid concerns the growing frosty relationship among top government officials could hurt his efforts to seal an enduring legacy.
There are widening cracks pitting pro-Uhuru ministers against those allied to Deputy President William Ruto.
The squabbles have threatened to hamper the rollout of the Big Four Agenda –– Housing, Food Security, Universal Health Care, and manufacturing –– upon which Uhuru wants to firm up his legacy.
A Twitter spat between Industrialisation CS Peter Munya and Kikuyu MP Kimani Ichung’wa on Friday brought to the fore the bad blood between Jubilee top brass.
“Ichung’wa is a rent seeker. Let him take his rent seeking missions to Kiunjuri. Inspirations from Sugoi will not improve dairy industry,” tweeted Munya.
The tweet which was later deleted was an attack on both Ruto and his only Mount Kenya ally in the Cabinet, Agriculture CS Mwangi Kiunjuri.
Ichung’wa had put Munya on the spot over the desperation of dairy farmers in Central, who had resorted to pouring away their milk due to poor prices and inability to access markets following flooding.
DP Ruto, himself a member of the Cabinet, has openly protested what he describes as chest-thumping, arrogance and disrespect by some civil servants.
President Uhuru Kenyatta is yet to substantively replace Treasury CS Henry Rotich, who was charged over the Arror and Kimwarer dams scandal.
Labour CS Ukur Yatani has been the acting Treasury boss since Rotich was arrested and charged in July this year.
The Cabinet split has been amplified by the recently unveiled Building Bridges Initiative report and what is seen as personal ambitions linked to 2022 succession politics.
Speculation is rife that Kiunjuri is positioning himself as a possible Ruto running mate in 2022.
Many other CSs and PSs are also scheming to make an attempt at running for high office, with Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi said to be eyeing the presidency.
Matiang’i is seen as the pivotal force at the heart of the President’s BBI agenda and is whipping the civil service to support the report.
National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale blamed the split in the Cabinet on CSs engaging in politics.
“We are telling those ministers pursuing regional or political ideologies that we are watching you (CSs). You (CSs) are violating the Constitution and the president must now crack the whip,” the Garissa Town MP said.
However, Ruto, who is among the members of the President’s Cabinet has cautiously welcomed the BBI report but signaled his reservations against a referendum as a mechanism to implementing the task force’s proposals.
Parallel events presided over by Matiang’i and Kiunjuri in Uhuru’s Mt Kenya backyard shortly after the unveiling of the BBI report lifted the lid over the trouble in paradise.
Matiang’i, who is believed to be in President Uhuru’s inner circle, was in Kirinyaga for a fundraiser, while Kiunjuri-seen as a flying kite for the DP Ruto-was in Embu for a leaders’ meeting.
Matiang’i led a strong delegation of his colleagues who included Joe Mucheru (ICT), George Magoha (Education), Keriako Tobiko (Environment), Peter Munya (Trade) and James Macharia (Transport) and a couple of government officials.
Kiunjuri’s Embu meeting brought together some 40 MPs from the Mt Kenya region largely allied to Ruto to deliberate on the BBI report.
In October, Water Principal secretary Joseph Irungu told a parliamentary committee that the DP was launching incomplete government projects without the knowledge of line ministries.
Indicative of the boiling tensions within the Cabinet, Ruto was last month forced to cancel a scheduled trip to Muranga to launch projects to avoid a clash with the president’s itinerary in the area.
A section of ministers seen as close to the President have also publicly claimed that their loyalty is to the President and no one else.
Duale warned that some of the ministers were misusing the President’s name in public fora while championing their own political agenda.
“The President has been categorical that it is him and deputy president William Ruto who would be politicians in the Jubilee government. The President has come out clear on this that ministers must not play politic. It appears some are misusing his name,” he said.
Mumias East MP and National Assembly Majority Whip Benjamin Washiali admitted that cracks were widening in the cabinet but heaped blame on opposition Chief Raila Odinga.
“Where there are two or three people they will always speak differently, you cannot always get a common a position. Raila is the one creating confusion which has now trickled down to the cabinet,” Washiali said.
Some of the Css seen as aligned to Ruto axis of the Cabinet include Kiunjuri, Farida Karoney (Lands), Charles Keter (Energy), Adan Mohamed (East Africa Community) and Simon Chelugui (Water).
The bad blood in the Cabinet was first brought to the fore in May when a section of the CSs including Peter Munya (Trade), Joe Mucheru(ICT), Cecily Kariuku (Health) and James Macharia (Transport) were accused of being behind a letter that had allegedly plotted to assassinate Ruto.
The CS’s denied the plot and a letter that detailed the alleged assassination plot was found to be a forgery.
The forgery case is in court.
Ruto refused to record a statement over his claims that shook the Jubilee administration saying the Directorate of Criminal Investigations needed to probe the matter.