New test for MPs vetting Ruto’s Cabinet Secretary nominees

MPs will face their own acid test as they vet President’s first batch of new Cabinet nominees.

President William Ruto’s release of some nominees’ names last week set the stage for scrutiny of their competence and whether they are ‘squeaky clean’. Gen Z wants them all out, whether they pass vetting or not. They want a grand housecleaning.

National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang’ula is expected to inform the House of the individuals nominated individuals’ names

The new nominees have triggered public outrage, especially after the President picked six nominees from the previous Cabinet that he sacked a fortnight ago after sustained street demos and online public pressure.

“We must fix the nation. We don’t want recycling,” Mohammed Kutu posted on X platform.

It will be riveting to see how the lawmakers behave in the vetting process. They were the targets of demonstrators for their passage of Ruto’s widely reviled proposed tax laws and the high cost of living.

Speaker Wetang’ula chairs the powerful Committee on Appointments that is charged with vetting the nominees.

Already, Gen Z, whose nonstop protests pushed the President to sack the previous Cabinet, threatened countrywide protests this week. They are joined by other millennials, activists online and even older Kenyans at home.

“Tuesday, July 23, Occupy Everywhere. Total shutdown. Raise your voice for those too afraid to speak out,” a poster circulating online reads.

In another poster, the ‘leaderless and faceless’ protesters called for “4 days of pressure, betrayal in the nation”.

The poster mobilises the Gen Zs on the street to occupy Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on Tuesday, invade all governors’ offices on Wednesday and march to the State House on Thursday.

Kenyans will be keen to see whether the lawmakers, many of them victims of the Gen Z wrath, will reject the ‘recycled’ nominees or follow the President’s script and approve them. The public generally agrees that some are far better than most who were given the posts as campaign rewards.

Their decision could either fuel the planned demos or quell them.

Unveiling the names of the nominees on Friday, Ruto brought back Alice Wahome, Davies Chirchir, Kithure Kindiki, Soipan Tuya, Aden Duale and Rebecca Miano to the Cabinet.

He retained four nominees in their previous dockets. They are Wahome (Lands and Housing), Duale (Defence), Tuya (Environment) and Kindiki (Interior).

The head of state moved Chirchir from Energy to the Transport docket, while Miano has been moved from the Ministry of Trade to the State Law Office as the next Attorney General.

The youth had demanded that none of the former Cabinet Secretaries be returned to the Cabinet, calling them cronies and demanding a thorough housecleaning over alleged incompetence, among other concerns.

“I think that was Ruto’s Cabinet, not the Kenyans’. Why reinstate some of you while we have millions of leaders here?” one X user, posted on Gen Z Alerts.

Goal Joseph reacted to a congratulatory post by one of the nominees on X, “No, we don’t want you back. WE THE PEOPLE do not want you back! Your boss never listens, we did not ask for a reshuffle! Tuesday tupatane maandamano.”

Last month, a number of MPs were victims of attacks as angry Kenyans descended on their homes and business premises with anger. They tracked some down to their rural home. Some homes were destroyed and property razed.

A number of MPs were booed while on the podium in their constituencies. Some legislators were barred from entering their constituencies.

Some lawmakers were forced to apologise to their constituents for not listening to them and wanted the high-tax Finance Bill rejected.

For the first time in Kenyan history, on June 25, the day the Bill was passed, protesters breached parliament, torched part of it and left behind a trail of destruction.

The Bill has since been withdrawn. Ruto rejected it and says he now has no choice but to cut the budget severely.