President Ruto Cabinet shuffle – Recycling or reform?

Like a train, President Ruto's administration comes with compartments. The trend has in the last few months been that of throwing those fired, not out of the train but to the next compartment. So, is Justin Muturi next in line?

On Tuesday night, President Ruto berated Justin Muturi, describing him as incompetent during his term as the Attorney General.

“I had a problem with the AG who was there before—he was fairly incompetent. But now, I have a very competent lady in the position, and I can assure you that the issues of Waqf will be sorted out within months,” Ruto stated during an Iftar dinner at State House, Nairobi.

He was responding to the Muslim leaders' concerns about delays in the establishment of an endowment fund, which has an Act in place that has not been operationalized.

The putdown is likely to raise questions—why, despite being fairly incompetent, was Muturi still appointed CS in the Ministry of Public Service? In the likely event that he is dropped from cabinet, will Muturi follow the beaten path of reappointment after being fired?

That trend is set.

In the government changes made last week, the president moved former ICT Principal Secretary, Edward Kisiang’ani, to his bureau of advisors as a senior advisor and member of the President's Council of Economic Advisors.

Previously, it was the former ICT and Digital Economy CS, Eliud Owalo, and the former Public Service, Performance, and Delivery Management CS, Moses Kuria, that were fired as cabinet secretaries and appointed presidential advisors.

When he sent his entire cabinet packing on July 11 last year under pressure from the Gen Z-led protests, President Ruto had this to say:

"I have seen many people ask me why did you dismiss the whole cabinet and then you hire some back. Let me answer it this way, it was necessary to have a fresh start because I told the people of Kenya, we are going to have a broad-based government and a fresh start…," Ruto said on July 29, 2024.

Nearly half of the dismissed cabinet secretaries were reappointed to cabinet. Some, like former Health CS Susan Nakhumicha, only waited a little longer, and last week she was nominated as the new Kenyan permanent representative to the UN-Habitat in Nairobi.

Others include former Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture and Livestock Development, Andrew Karanja, who is now Kenya’s ambassador to Brazil, and former Gender CS Aisha Jumwa, who was fired and later appointed as the chairperson of the Kenya Roads Board—drawing opposition from the Institution of Engineers of Kenya (IEK) over her lack of any background in civil, structural, or transport engineering.

Former ICT CS Margaret Nyambura Ndungu rejected a posting to Accra, Ghana, as ambassador.

During the signing of performance contracts at State House, President Ruto lamented over the incompetence and cluelessness of some of his CSs and PSs.

"You are the PS or the minister and you don’t have information—how do you run a ministry, a department, or a parastatal if you have no information? That is the highest level of incompetence," Ruto said at the time.