Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Sing’oei has termed Rwandan President Paul Kagame as an iconic leader whose “bold leadership” is admired at home and abroad.
His remarks come on the heels of a statement by Roads Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen who had stated that Rwanda is an autocracy and that whatever the President says is the law.
“You cannot compare the political situation in Rwanda and the size of the country with our country and our democracy,” Murkomen said on Citizen TV on Monday.
His remarks elicited criticism from Nairobi lawyer Ahmednasir Abdullahi who asked Sing’oei to urgently organise workshops for government officials to educate them on basic tenets of the comity of nations.
“Murkomen can't attack a sovereign friendly state without provocation and disparage President Paul Kagame just like that. This is embarrassing,” he said on X.
Abdullahi added that CSs must be taken through a course, teaching them the responsibilities that come with their constitutional offices.
“Very soon, Kenya will be a pariah state in the hood,” he said.
The PS responded by saying each country within the East African Community has a unique democratic praxis suited to their contexts.
“We celebrate this diversity of expressions and institutional arrangements. Rwanda is a key brotherly nation,” he said.
After his television remarks, Murkomen went on social media and expressed his admiration for Rwanda’s style of leadership “which has made it possible for them to build good infrastructure including a new airport and enforce discipline and order on their roads”.
“It’s not just Rwanda, countries like UAE, Morocco, and Saudi Arabia among others have a style of leadership that has delivered great success to their people because their leaders have the power to make firm decisions,” he stated.
Murkomen said Kenya’s style of leadership has many positives but it’s too bureaucratic and takes years to make a very simple decision which ends up being very costly for the people.
“Instead of you crying about Rwanda please cry for your country,” Murkomen told Abdullahi.
He asked the city lawyer to help the government deal with court orders that “award a contractor Sh10 billion for claims and interests for a contract worth Sh2 billion or a road that stalls for 10 years because a competing bidder is still waiting for a decision of the court.”