Jubilee Secretary General Raphael Tuju is no minister yet; he remains the ruling party’s boss, State House Director of Digital and Diaspora Communications Dennis Itumbi says.
On Friday, President Uhuru Kenyatta while naming his full Cabinet included Tuju’s name but did not assign him any specific docket.
Instead, said the President, he will be co-opted to the Cabinet on a “need be case”.
However, Itumbi seeks to right facts distorted by the press in reportage of Tuju’s new post if Parliament endorses his nomination.
He said via his twitter handle on Sunday that, “You cannot have a CS who only sits in the Cabinet sometimes, ‘on a need basis’… Tuju remains Jubilee SG.”
He added in another conversation with NTV manager Linus Kaikai that the media has misreported the facts surrounding Tuju’s nomination to Cabinet as a CS without portfolio.
“Co-opting into Cabinet ‘on a need basis’ can surely not make you a CS. It is a tool aimed at informing or enriching Cabinet decision.”
His nomination to Cabinet is aimed at placing “Jubilee agenda at the heart of decision making”.
Contacted for comment on the matter, Tuju told the Star that the President is best-positioned to tell Kenyans what the post means.
“I am not familiar with the comments. It is not in my capacity to explain this to newspapers. But when something is not clear, it’s appropriate for the president to clarify,” said he.
This is the second time Kenya is poised to have a minister with no portfolio. The first minister in such a setting was Chief Justice Chunilal Madan who was appointed by the then colonial administration in 1956.