Seven Cabinet Secretaries currently serving in President Uhuru Kenyatta’s cabinet are set to face the axe.
The President and his Deputy William Ruto want a change of guard in the seven ministries.
The general feeling is that the seven CS’ who are yet to be named, lack political experience or have not delivered to the expectation of the Jubilee duo.
They are now casting their nets wider with the hope to catch a political savvy lot.
Sunday Nation revealed that the President will increase the number of Cabinet Secretaries from the current 19 to 22.
The Constitution gives a minimum of 14 and a maximum of 22.
The new posts will promote inclusivity in government given that the President is balancing between legacy and succession politics in 2022 where his Deputy has taken the front seat.
“I hope he does (fill the 22 posts). I do not even see the reason why he left them not filled in his first term.
“Those posts will give us an opportunity to provide an all-inclusive government, one of the pillars of our campaigns,” Kikuyu MP Kimani Ichung’wah said.
Baringo North MP William Cheptumo echoed Ichung’wa’s statement saying: “As the President considers the things he has promised, it will all be in the interest of making an all-inclusive Kenya, which is more than just a Jubilee manifesto promise, it is a constitutional requirement.”
But the duo’s headache in making the appointments is that there are so many people clamoring for the positions especially poll losers from both Jubilee and NASA who pledged allegiance in Jubilee and put up a spirited campaign in the run-up to the repeat elections.
Those featuring predominantly are former Budalangi MP Ababu Namwamba, former Funyula MP Paul Otuoma, Mombasa gubernatorial loser Suleihman Shahbal, Kilifi’s Gideon Mungaro and former Meru Governor Peter Munya.
However, Senate Majority Leader Kipchumba Murkomen says the new posts should be about delivery to Kenyans and not succession politics.
“If Jubilee delivers, no matter whether the Deputy President had a hand in the appointment of the cabinet secretaries, he will still be an automatic beneficiary when he runs for the top job in 2022.”
With such a huge number gunning for the few posts available in government, Cheptumo advises that they just have to be content.
“I think we all need to just understand that the spaces are limited and that when one of us is appointed, we learn to appreciate. We cannot all be in one position.”