President William Ruto during a past event// PHOTO COURTESY.
Homabay Town MP Hon. George Opondo Kaluma has confirmed that he is single handedly going to oppose President William Ruto’s Cabinet appointments, which he claims do not align with articles 10, 27 and 232 of the Constitution on ethnicity, regional and gender balance, respectively.
The lawmaker underscored that the Cabinet was constitutionally aligned not until former President Uhuru Kenyatta was infiltrated in the Kenya Kwanza Government, through allocation of Cabinet slots—by appointing William Kabogo, Lee Kinyanjui, Ndiritu Muriithi, Mutahi Kagwe among other Uhuru’s confidants in the latest cabinet reshuffle.
Kaluma denunciated that all the slots allocated to Uhuru are Kikuyu men from Mt. Kenya region, unlike slots that Odinga distributed which contained Kenyans across the country, having a balance between ethnicity and gender, when he was opportuned to join the government.
“President Ruto’s reconstituted Cabinet had gender, ethnic and regional balance until President Uhuru Kenyatta was given slots to distribute among Jubilee Members. Unlike @TheODMparty which spread theirs across Kenya, Uhuru presented only Kikuyu men forgetting women, Merus, Embus and other communities and regions of Kenya,” highlighted the MP.
The leader consequently threatened to take action by mobilising all Members of Parliament not to approve the names of the nominees during vetting, in a move to propel Uhuru Kenyatta to revert to his drawing board and provide names that do not violate the Constitution on inclusivity and gender.
“The present nominations clearly violate Articles 10, 27 and 232 of the Constitution and will deny the Cabinet required ethnic, regional and gender balance, if approved by Parliament. In upholding the Constitution, I will mobilise all MPs to reject them. This will give Uhuru the chance to present nominees from across Kenya as mandated by the Constitution,” he admitted.
A day ago, former Meru Governor, Hon. Kiraitu Murungi disapproved of Ruto’s Cabinet, citing leaving some communities out in the cold, particularly the Meru community, despite their numbers in attracting votes.
“Our problem is that, how come Meru has disappeared from Kenya’s national and political maps? We are number four in providing a multitude of votes for any government. Our people are not happy. They say that no minister was appointed in Meru, but why not give them even an ambassador? We are saying the Meru people are tired of being taken for granted. We won’t be political door mats anymore. We want to be treated equally like other ethnic blocs because we have a right to be in this country just like the others,” said Kiraitu.
Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) also repudiated the recent reshuffle owing to the fact that it violates the aforementioned articles of the Constitution. It noted that if Kabogo, Kinyanjui and Muriithi who all come from the controversial Mt. Kenya region are approved by the National Assembly, the region will dominate the cabinet with more than 30 percent.
“With the new CS nominations, the Mt Kenya region is poised to dominate the cabinet. If the National Assembly approves Kabogo, Kinyanjui, and Kagwe, they will join Justin Muturi, Rebecca Miano, Alice Wahome, and Eric Muriithi in the cabinet,” KHRC stated.
“When the president, deputy president, and attorney-general are included, eight cabinet members will be from the Mt Kenya region, constituting 34.7 per cent of the cabinet,” the statement added.
The commission heightened that having such appointment in one region without gender balance and inclusivity contravenes the law.
“Such actions contravene the public’s trust and the obligation to exercise power in their interest. Article 10 of the Constitution identifies the key national values and principles of governance, including patriotism and national unity,” the commission stated.
The commission further took a swipe at the President for allegedly promoting gender discrimination by failing to consider women in his recent cabinet appointments, outlining that only 5 out of 20 Cabinet secretaries are women, which is only 25 percent.
