Meet Uhuru’s new “Kitchen Cabinet”
A mix of old and new advisers around President Uhuru Kenyatta is being credited with the tough decisions that are drawing strident criticism from sections of the public and the Opposition.
Sources close to the Presidency however say Uhuru is a different man from the President of the first term. Since his controversial reelection on October 26, 2017, Uhuru has transformed into a firm-fisted politician, often taking solitary decisions that find his advisers and close allies wrong-footed.
When he took the oath of office for his second term on November 28, Uhuru made it clear that it will not be business as usual.
He has set his sights on driving his agenda without the burden of reelection politics weighing heavily on his shoulders. Unlike his first term, his close advisers say he has developed a much tougher approach to issues that is detailed and systematic. People around him told the Star that his talk revolves around development, especially the Big Four agenda he has prioritised: Food security, housing, health and manufacturing.
The President is also said to be placing a high premium on law and order, corruption, general discipline in government and high loyalty from those he has given jobs.
These he has entrusted to a coterie of appointees who hold key portfolios. Over the past three months since he assumed his second term in office, it has emerged that the President is increasingly working with a small team of aides with whom he is constantly in communication, delegating the implementation of executive decisions.
It is this team that was meeting and advising the President in the countdown to the January 30 oathing by Nasa leader Raila Odinga.
The same team is credited with the withdrawal of Police from Uhuru Park, and the clampdown on the media. It was also instrumental in the decision to deport Miguna Miguna to Canada on Monday this week.
William Ruto
Although his absence from State House when the President first named his Cabinet nominees caused a lot of speculation, Ruto remains a key member of Uhuru’s inner team. He remains the principal adviser to the President and is by his side most of the time when he is consulting others or making decisions. Uhuru allows his deputy to deal with a litany of political issues and to drive his administration’s agenda.
In the last two weeks, Ruto has presided over crucial meetings aimed at jump-starting the Big Four agenda at his Karen residence.
On Tuesday, he hosted governors for the Intergovernmental Budget and Economic Council (IBEC) and yesterday he met with the in-charges of the ministries of Water and Agriculture. Last week, he also chaired another IBEC meeting before going to commission roads in Murang’a.
The constitutional second-in-command is a hair’s breath from his boss, and still enjoys the traditional chemistry that was strained by the Cabinet appointments. To his credit, the DP has learnt how to play along as he strategises for the succession battle ahead.
Justin Muturi
The National Assembly Speaker is a close friend of the President and worked for many years in Kanu and in Parliament when Uhuru was the Leader of the Official Opposition between 2002-2007.
When Uhuru was looking for his new Cabinet nominees, Muturi, was among the people he was consulting. He, together with CSs Fred Matiang’i, Joe Mucheru, Intelligence director Philip Kameru and Attorney-General Githu helped the President decide the initial nominees to the Cabinet that DP Ruto was uncomfortable with.
The same team met and decided to withdraw the police from Uhuru Park and allow NASA to go on with their swearing-in ceremony last week, while the President was in Ethiopia.
Matiang’i. Kameru, Mucheru and some other senior government officials made the decision to deport Miguna.
Muturi takes care of the President’s interests and executes his agenda through the Jubilee-dominated Parliament. As Chairman of the Parliamentary Service Commission and chair of the Appointments Committee of the National Assembly, Muturi is the President’s gatekeeper in the Legislature.
He is consulted and prepares the ground for smooth-implementation executive decisions that require legislative backup. His role is likely to be amplified in the implementation of the Big Four plan.
Fred Matiangi
Referred to derisively as the ‘super minister’ by his former Cabinet colleagues, the new Interior Cabinet Secretary has wormed his way into Uhuru’s Kitchen Cabinet because of his abrasive and decisive style of prosecuting government policy.
He sees and speaks to the President daily on various issues and it is understood that the President has a lot of time for and trust in the former Education Cabinet Secretary. Matiangi’s rise is attributed to the backing of Simeon Nyachae, and the work he did while working on a capacity building programme for the Kenyan legislature by the City University of New York.
Joe Mucheru
The pintsized ICT Cabinet Secretary is by virtue of his portfolio among the President’s inner circle. He earned the trust of the President for his role in mobilising the voter turnout in Nyeri County and, together with Matiang’i and other government agencies, delivering clean national examinations in a record turnaround time because of the application of information technology.
When newly elected Nyeri Governor Gakuru Wahome died, it was Mucheru who was put in charge of the funeral committee.
He is among the few Cabinet Secretaries engaged in the execution of the recent crackdown, his role being to manage media, as key decisions on how to deal with Raila’s oath-taking ceremony were made.
Githu Muigai
Although seen by many as a man on his way out, the AG seems to have regained the confidence of the President on legal matters. Since the President was sworn in, the AG has been spending many hours in State House ensuring Uhuru makes legally sound decisions. It is his advice that has been queried by critics who have faulted many of the President’s actions, including the recent creation of the position of Chief Administrative Secretary and the subsequent nominations that have been challenged in court.
Kinuthia Mbugua
The new State House comptroller is reputed to be a stern administrator from his days as the Commandant of the Administration Police. He is not only in charge of who sees the President but sits in key meetings and follows up to ensure decisions are fully implemented. The former governor of Nakuru is known to send fear among staff, and is seen as part of the reason the president’s easy-going demeanor has began to wear off.
Philip Kameru
The Director-General of the National Intelligence Service is characteristically the quiet member of Uhuru’s Kitchen Cabinet. He has the president’s trust and is said to be responsible for some of the operations that have raised political hue and cry recently. His service has recently been involved in covert operations, and it is believed to be doing more than just gathering intelligence.
Samson Mwathethe
Like his Intelligence counterpart, the Kenyan Chief of Defence Forces remains a key member of the inner circle since Uhuru began his re-election campaigns. He is a frequent visitor to State House to brief the commander on various security operations in and out of the country.
Jomo Gecaga
The President’s private secretary and nephew has been by his side for years. Along with Mbugua, he is the one who often transmits the president’s directives and brings back the feedback. He is instrumental in deciding have been calling the shots on who attends what meeting.
Additionally, the President often consults with his pal and Jubilee Vice-Chair David Murathe, Jubilee party Secretary General Raphael Tuju, and Chief of staff and head of the Presidential Delivery Unit Nzioka Waita, and the party’s Majority leaders in both the National Assembly and Senate, Aden Duale and Kipchumba Murkomen.
While announcing his Cabinet, Uhuru said that he had co-opted Tuju into Cabinet on a need to basis. Insiders say this role will be key to ensure that the Cabinet operations are in line with the Jubilee manifesto and to align Jubilee MPs to the party position.
The first signal that he will not entertain those who will not toe the line was the drastic action of whipping MPs from his Jubilee Party to strip those who had defied his line up to be elected chairmen and vice chairmen of Agriculture, Labour, Environment and Broadcasting committees of the National Assembly.
With the recent crackdown on the Opposition and media, Uhuru immediately cut the image of a strongman, drawing cautionary statements from western countries.
The Opposition, civil society groups and the international community criticized as dictatorship and violation of the constitution and human rights the shutdown of four leading television stations — KTN, NTV, Citizen and Inooro — on the orders of Interior CS Fred Matiang’i for a week. So was the treatment of the suspended Communications Authority Director General Francis Wangusi, who was last Friday barred from accessing his office, despite a High Court order reinstating him.
The arrests of opposition leaders who participated in the swearing-in of NASA leader Raila Odinga as the “People’s President” and deportation of self-styled NRM “General” Miguna MIguna on Tuesday night to Canada are seen as the first step by President Uhuru to fully take charge of the country and neutralize the opposition.
ANC leader and NASA co-principal Musalia Mudavadi described the clampdown as “a call to all Kenyans who value freedom to rise against martial law rule by the Jubilee regime”.
“The struggle has entered another phase resulting from the sadistic defilement of civil rights. This struggle is not about parties because the Jubilee dictatorship ruins all Kenyans. Police brutality, media shutdown and installation of a police state hurt all Kenyans,” he said in a press statement.
https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2018/02/09/meet-uhurus-new-kitchen-cabinet_c1711557