Duale terms Gachagua's remarks on Cabinet members as irresponsible
Environment Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale has addressed comments made by former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, who referred to President William Ruto’s Cabinet members as “flower girls.”
Duale described the remarks as irresponsible, particularly coming from someone of Gachagua’s stature.
He stated that Gachagua chaired Cabinet Subcommittees where all issues were debated before they were presented before the Cabinet.
"It is very irresponsible to say that a cabinet is a rubber stamp, they are flower girls," Duale stated during an interview with Citizen TV.
“I want leaders to be honest. Do I look like a flower girl? Flower girls are good by the way. A former deputy president should not make such remarks. Let me say this on behalf of my colleagues because I sit in Cabinet, we debate in the subcommittee of Cabinet chaired by the DP. Riggy G (Rigathi Gachagua) himself said he chaired the highest number of subcommittees of Cabinet."
He further explained that Ruto has made it mandatory that matters are discussed in the Cabinet Subcommittees before they are presented by respective Cabinet Secretaries to the Cabinet.
He was responding to the former Deputy President’s recent remarks alleging that he was the only person who could stand up to President William Ruto and tell him when he was wrong in Cabinet.
The former DP further claimed that all the others were ‘flower girls’ whose jobs were to ‘praise and worship’ what the President said, even when it was wrong.
“The government that he leads is a one-man show. All those ministers you see there are flower girls. I was the only man in Cabinet who could tell him this is not right. It is a praise and worship cabinet and I was the only one who could not fit in,” Gachagua alleged.
On Friday, Lands Cabinet Secretary Alice Wahome also told off Gachagua over the ‘flower girls’ remarks.
Speaking during the groundbreaking ceremony for the South B modern market, Wahome said while it is his job to criticise the government, Gachagua and all the other critics must do so with respect and decorum.
She added that all they should do is to always speak the truth to the people of Kenya.
