President William Ruto may take advantage of a reshuffle to re-organise his government and dump dead weight, although he is to indebted to some poor performers like Alfred Mutua and Penninah Malonza, who may survive the axe
By THE DISPATCH.DIGITAL REPORTER
President William Ruto is mulling a far reaching Cabinet reshuffle in a bid to calm the restive youth population that rattled his government to its core in the last three weeks. Sources familiar with the goings-on in Ruto’s Statehouse said the President might bring in some three or four youthful faces to indicate inclusivity in the government and calm the population.
Among those who could be shown the door from their lucrative offices is Agriculture CS Mithika Linturi, who recently survived an impeachment motion in Parliament after Ruto intervened. A source said that while Linturi had proved invaluable to Ruto before the Presidency, he had become a liability as a CS due to his incompetence and inefficiency and dirt deals that had taken place in his ministry. The fertilizer scandal, which was planned and executed in the ministry, stands out as the biggest scandal to rock the Ruto government, some of whose members had understood their appointment as a ticket to wealth through corruption.
The next target on Ruto’s chopping board is, surprisingly, Kipchumba Murkomen, who has always been assumed to be one of Ruto’s closest allies and advisors. Sources revealed that Murkomen lost his stature with Ruto after it emerged that he was one of the allies who were accused by the protesting youth of being an unapologetic conspicuous consumer; wearing Yves St. Laurent clothes and designer watches and shoes costing millions of shillings. A source disclosed that it seemed that Murkomen had been blinded by the money available to him through kickbacks at the Ministry of Roads that he forgot why he had been appointed. In his place, sources said Ruto’s old friend and ally, one believed to have been a business partner, Charles Keter, could take his place. Keter was an elected MP before he became Senator and then CS in Uhuru Kenyatta’s government. He ran for the Kericho Governor’s seat in 2022 but lost.
One of the issues bringing down Murkomen is the slow issuance of reflective motor vehicle and motorcycle number places, which is planned to take seven days but takes months or weeks due to corruption and inefficiency at the NTSA. Ruto was also concerned that the number of accidents were not being controlled and it was giving his regime a band names since most of the causes were corruption-related.
Another expected casualty is East African Affairs CS Peninah Malonzo, who is however giving Ruto a headache as she comes from Kalonzo Musyoka’s Eastern region backyard and played an important behind-the-scenes role in ensuring he got elected. It is the same dilemma he has over Tourism Minister Alfred Mutua, who was moved from the Foreign Affairs Ministry due to a luck-lustre performance and general ineptitude. Mutua is however said to have contributed a hefty sum of money to Ruto’s campaign war chest and offloading him could be interpreted as a lack of appreciation by Ruto.
But the biggest casualty could be former Gatundu North MP and current Public Service CS Moses Kuria. Kuia has been in the sights of Ruto since he was implicated in the edible oil importation scandal, which cost both the government and businesses millions of shillings in revenue. It was that scandal that led to Kuria’s surprise transfer to the Public Service docket, where he has been unhappy as he does not have access to opportunities to make money. Kuria blames Deputy President Rigathi Gacagua for his woes and has taken every opportunity to call him name and make accusations on his X handle. Kuria believes Gacagua has been undermining him by associating with former Kiambu Governors Ferdinand Waititu and Peter Nyoro; and former Kiambu MP Jude Njomo, all of who do not see eye to eye with Kuria.
Kuria is further aggrieved by the DP’s growing influence in Murang’a, where he has eclipsed Ndindi Nyoro and netted Sabina Chege and former Kigumo MP and Murang’a County Governor aspirant Jamleck Irungu Kamau.
Although he has been at loggerheads with Ruto and is beginning to show his craving for the Presidency openly, Rigathi Gacagua’s base appears untouched but that is because his supporters have not been playing an active role in Government but on the fringes, where they have helped him to tilt the large Kikuyu vote against President Ruto.
When, not if, Ruto does execute the changes in his Cabinet, it will remain an uncertain time for him as his popularity is at its lowest, the lowest any President of Kenya has ever got to and it remains to be seen how he intends to navigate the tumultuous waters up to the elections of 2027, if he survives that long. For now, it is certain that he needs a lot of humility and austerity to survive the coming weeks and one of the steps he needs to take is trim his Cabinet and hire only people who will deliver, not dead weight and incompetent political allies with no clue of how to run a government.