‘The more the better’: Sossion defends Ruto’s seven new PSs amid wage bill concerns

Former Member of Parliament Wilson Sossion has praised President William Ruto’s creation of seven new Principal Secretary (PS) positions which has sparked concerns about the growing size of the Kenya Kwanza government and the heavy cost it places on taxpayers.

On Thursday, Ruto created seven new state departments, bringing the total number of PSs to 51 and the taxpayer money needed to keep them in office for a year to approximately Ksh.765 million a year.

Sossion, on Tuesday, defended Ruto’s move, saying the new officials will “focus on more programs within the state departments” which in turn will enhance service delivery.

“If you have more hands doing different jobs more effectively, the better. The more you split and dedicate responsibilities to different experts, the better,” the former ODM nominated MP and trade unionist told Citizen TV’s Daybreak program.

Sossion argued that currently, it is “impossible” for the 21 cabinet secretaries to preside over several ministerial functions with two or three PSs each.

“It becomes difficult because our ministries are large and complex, with many programs running at the ministry. The entry of more PSs is a big relief,” he said.

The new state departments announced last week comprise the State Department for Public Investments and Assets Management to be led by PS nominee Cyrell Odede, National Government Co-ordination (Ahmed Ibrahim); Justice, Human Rights, and Constitutional Affairs (Judith Pareno); Science, Research, and Innovation (Abdulrazak Shaukut); and Aviation and Aerospace Development (Teresiah Mbaika).

Others are the State Department for Special Programmes (Ismael Madey) and Children Welfare Services (Carren Ageng'o).

Ruto's government has struggled to get its finances back on track over the last two years after a domestic and external borrowing spree which has resulted in high debt-servicing costs.

Core public services like healthcare and education continue to struggle with underfunding, as Ruto’s bid to increase taxation last year through a controversial finance bill resulted in deadly protests, leading to its withdrawal.

At the time, however, Ruto said his government would, among other things, keep government spending as low as possible to meet the bill's withdrawal gap, a pledge he has been criticised for seemingly dishonouring in recent months.