Rough start for Ruto's ministers a month after assuming office

It has been a rough start for several Cabinet Secretaries who are literally  fire-fighting to avert a storm in their dockets, one month after assuming office.

The crisis, which started at the Education ministry when teachers threatened to paralyse the reopening of schools for the third term, quickly snowballed - sucking in several ministries in a classical baptism of fire.

The broad-based cabinet assumed office on August 8, but a number are already facing career-threatening crises in their ministries.

Education CS Julius Ogamba, Davis Chirchir (Transport), Treasury's John Mbadi, Opiyo Wandayi (Energy and Petroleum), Public Service minister Justin Muturi and  Debra Barasa (Health) are all putting up a fight to keep their dockets afloat.

Chirchir is the latest victim of a major storm that saw the country’s largest airport grounded for the better part of Wednesday, as aviation workers protested a plan to lease the facility.

The standoff at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport caused unprecedented flight delays and flight cancellations, leaving most passengers stranded.

Chirchir would later acknowledge the government’s failure to disclose details of the deal, while insisting that no binding contract exists with the Indian firm, Adani.

“There was a bit of lapse of communication in the way we have carried the privately initiated investment by Adani in this airport," Chirchir said.

The airport crisis closely followed another tempest in the education sector, which in the last week saw a return of school fires.

A deadly inferno claimed the lives of 21 pupils at Endarasha academy, while four other schools have been torched so far.

The fires, whose causes are yet to be ascertained, piled pressure on CS Ogamba, who is facing a potential crisis in universities as both lecturers and students plan the 'mother of all demonstrations'.

While lecturers planned to keep off all 35 public universities from September 18, the students' grievance on the other hand, is on the new funding approach. 

The students want a review of the model, which they claim has made university education unaffordable to the majority.

This, notwithstanding that the new CS just weeks ago averted twin strikes by Kenya National Union of Teachers and the Kenya Union of Post Primary Teachers.

The unions had called for a teachers' strike starting August 26 - when schools were scheduled to reopen.

The teachers accused the government of failing to implement the second phase of the 2021-2025 collective bargaining agreement.

They also wanted the 46,000 Junior Secondary School teachers converted into permanent and pensionable terms and the promotion of 130,000 teachers, among others.

The strike wave also swept into Muturi’s ministry which had to engage in last-minute negotiations to ward off a civil servants' strike that threatened to shut down all government services.

The Energy CS was welcomed to Kawi House with two national power outages, triggering outrage from impatient Kenyans.

In the past one month, the country has suffered two major power blackouts that have left businesses counting losses. 

In response, the CS ordered a report on technical, operational and human capital capacity of the National Control Centre.

The report was to highlight power infrastructure configuration, power system protection and generation mix decisions in proactively managing system disturbances and avoiding recurrence.

“When one transmission line or equipment breaks down, it affects the whole system. We are working to upgrade outdated lines and equipment. We have formed a team to restore power within the shortest time when there is a blackout,” Wandayi said.

For Mbadi, the issue of raising revenue in the face of the withdrawn Finance Bill 2024 is giving the former MP sleepless nights.

The situation may go south for the Treasury boss if the Supreme Court upholds the appellate court’s verdict that ruled Finance Bill 2023 unconstitutional.

Mbadi, through senior counsel Githu Muigai, told the apex court that the government will lose Sh214 billion if it does not quash the Court of Appeal verdict.

The Court of Appeal declared the Finance Act, 2023, unconstitutional, threatening to deny the National Treasury more revenue.

This was less than two months after Treasury lost a provisional Sh346 billion, following countrywide protests that led to the rejection of the Finance Bill 2024.

In the Health docket, Barasa has been burning the midnight oil, devising strategies to arrest further spread of Mpox.

Kenya has so far confirmed the fifth case of the virus.

The recent case is a 28-year-old woman from Mombasa.

The fourth patient is currently admitted in Nakuru.

"The patient has no travel history to a country reporting Mpox cases. Her spouse had recently travelled to Rwanda returning on August 24," the Health CS said.

According to the ministry, 124 samples have been submitted to laboratories for testing, with 110 testing negative and nine still under analysis.

To date, 687,233 travellers have been screened at 24 ports of entry across the country.

"Active surveillance for suspected cases is ongoing to control the spread of the disease," Barasa said.

Data from the ministry shows that 33 contacts are currently under observation, while two out of the five positive cases have recovered.

To add to Barasa’s misery, health unions have also issued a strike notice if counties will not address their pay grievances in two weeks.

Delayed payment of salaries, lack of medical cover and failure to remit statutory deductions are some of the issues the health workers want addressed.

“We will have to come together as public servants working in the county governments. We have been reduced to beggars and cannot accept it. When we take loans, those loans are paid. Most of us have been blacklisted by Credit Reference Bureaus,” Kenya National Union of Nurses Secretary General Seth Panyako told the Star on phone.

“We cannot access medical services because the cover has not been paid. Even NHIF is not being paid. All statutory deductions have not been remitted.”