Early cracks in Ruto's ‘broad-based' Cabinet

Early cracks in the President William Ruto's ‘broad-based’ government have emerged, with hard talk starting to emerge.

Alarmingly for the president, the war drums are emanating from his two critical camps. One from opposition chief Raila Odinga who got six(6) nominees to the Cabinet and the other from Mt Kenya region which the head of state gave eight(8) slots.

Mt Kenya forms a critical pillar of his presidency since it gave him 87 percent of its votes and 47 percent of his authority after the August 9, 2022, general election.

Should trouble brew from those two camps, pundits warn that President Ruto can as well kiss his rule goodbye in 2027 or, earlier through above board causes like impeachment or similar actions like Gen Z-led protests.

On Sunday, Cooperatives CS Wycliffe Oparanya declared that he will withdraw from the Cabinet should he be accorded undue censorship by the president.

"If in the exercise of my mandate the president or any other person in the government will try to limit me, I will withdraw myself and come back home," Mr Oparanya said.

He said his understanding was that the president reached out to him because he needed help “and if I try to show him the way and he tries to bend me, I will have no choice but leave”.

"One asks for help and should wait to be helped," he quipped.

Nyeri Governor Mutahi Kahiga had earlier said “we are only binding our time and see what happens”.

On Monday, Naivasha MP Jayne Kihara dismissed the ‘broad-based’ Cabinet saying it is an insult to the Constitution and tenets of democracy.

Ms Kihara who is an ardent supporter of Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua said incorporation of opposition leaders into ruling Cabinet makes nonsense of presidential vote.

"The President bringing in ODM people into government is trashing Wanjiku's vote. It is a clear testimony that this country has its owners. Voting is useless," Ms Kihara said on Inooro TV.

This is contrary to Mr Gachagua's assertion that “we in Mt Kenya are collectively happy with this ‘broad-based’ Cabinet”.

“We welcome the Odinga men and we will show them how to work,” Mr Gachagua said.

The DP's statement of "we will show them how to work" which he uttered on August 10, 2024, while in Kirinyaga County is construed to be the cause of Mr Oparanya's ire.

Mr Gachagua added that "ignore those making silly pronouncements that we are complaining and intending to move out of Dr Ruto's Kenya Kwanza government".

The DP further added that "our leaders must learn to be pronouncing good directives to our communities as well as realise that this is our government that we cannot leave".

Muranga Woman Representative Betty Maina announced that the area is happy with the new Cabinet and will reward the president with 10 years of rule, ending 2032.

But Ms Kihara has now countered that presidential elections as it stands, should be banned and instead, regional council of elders be congregating and be agreeing on the president and Cabinet “to drive us for five(5) years”.

She said elections are costly, fractious and a health threat to contestants who lose.

"Coming later to trash the electoral choices of the people and overlooking the majority wish is bad politics. This president is a politician. There is a difference between the two. He is now focused on 2027," she added.

She said the President had no justification to go for ODM since Kenya Kwanza Alliance (KKA) had a clear majority in both houses.

She accused the president of being behind recent political upheavals around the office of the Deputy President that were leading to suggestions that he be impeached.

"He was the one who was convening sectarian Mt Kenya meetings against Mr Gachagua. Those of us close to Mr Gachagua were not being invited to those meetings but there was one I was accidentally invited to and when I showed up they hurriedly wound up," she said.

She alleged the president had by the time of announcing vacation of the Gachagua impeachment debate, concerned several anti-Gachagua meetings.
She said the president's change of heart about Mr Gachagua was when he toured Mt Kenya region on August 7, 2024, and August 9, 2024, for a fact finding mission.

"He came face to face with serious splits on the ground, not to his favoured plan," she said.

Dr Ruto however maintained that Gachagua ouster small talk was emanating from supremacy battle in the Mountain region.

In the working tours that took him to Embu, Kirinyaga and Kirinyaga counties, the president appeared to be on a mission to sell his new Cabinet to the region that is known to traditionally repel in giving Mr Odinga support.

In defending his 30 percent share of his Cabinet to the opposition, president Ruto speaking in Murang'a regretted that his development agenda was being slowed down by negative politics that culminated in dropping his Finance Bill, 2024 and the nullification of the 2023 one by the courts.

"There occurred complications that saw my service delivery budget flop. Most of my development projects suffered. We could not continue like that and I had to reach out to all Kenyans to come together to resolve the impasse," Dr Ruto said.

The president said his taxation drive was being fought, yet his agenda was to raise funds to help the country overcome national debts, fund development and secure the future.

"They call me Zakayo, yet the Zakayo I know was collecting taxes and banking it in his personal account. They call me Zakayo yet the money I'm trying to raise is not for my personal use. It reached a point I brought everyone on board so that we all be Zakayos," he said.

On Tuesday (today August 13, 2024), Dr Ruto who is on a three-day tour of Kisii County, told off critics of his ‘broad-based’ government.

Speaking in Keumbu, he insisted that there comes a time when the interests of the country supersede any other interests.

“Naona viongozi wengine wako na shida na muungano wa Wakenya, wako na shida na serikali nimeunda kuleta Wakenya pamoja… Nataka niwaambie hawa viongozi mjue kwamba inafika wakati umoja wa taifa, progress ya Kenya, transformation ya nchi yetu ni ya muhimu kuliko vyama, mirengo na makabila,” he said in Swahili and mixed dialect to point to need forge ahead as a united front.

Former Bahati MP Kimani Ngunjiri on Sunday also trashed the broad-based cabinet terming it as betrayal to Mt Kenya.

"We have been shown that our votes do not matter. We were told that deciding who forms government and who forms opposition is just idle gossip recorded in our laws," Mr Ngunjiri said.

He added that “we should be readying to move out of this government soonest possible, form our Mt Kenya region political party, contest the 2027 presidential vote with one of our own, win or lose but end up in government like how Mr Odinga does it.”