On July 11, 2024, Kenya’s President William Ruto sacked all the Cabinet Secretaries and Attorney General except Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi, who is also the only Prime Cabinet Secretary.
This move comes after weeks of Gen Z-led anti-tax protests, which left at least 39 protesters dead and many injured last month. Despite Ruto bowing down to pressure and dropping the finance bill, Kenyans continued to protest, demanding his resignation.
The president’s move to defuse pressure also comes after the tribeless and leaderless Kenyan demonstrators planned a fresh round of protests next week in response to the ongoing issue of police brutality, killings, and abductions of the vocal protesters.
“Upon reflection and listening keenly to what people of Kenya have said and after a holistic appraisal of the performance of my cabinet and its achievements and challenges, I have, in line with the powers given to me by Article 152(1) and 152(5)(b) of the Constitution and Section 12 of the Office of the Attorney-General Act, decided to dismiss with immediate effect all the Cabinet Secretaries and the Attorney-General from the Cabinet of the Republic of Kenya except the Prime Cabinet Secretary and Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs,” Rutosaid.
Kenyans had been requesting the dismissal of cabinet secretaries, especially during the #EngageThePresident session on X (Twitter) Spaces on July 5, 2024, where Marvin Mabonganoted that many of them were incompetent. Even though Ruto’sadministration claims that foreign loan payments and government programmes will be negatively affected without the additional tax revenue, Kenyans are convinced that the government collects enough money but loses it to corrupt leaders who are usually not prosecuted.
Ruto had also promised to reduce government advisers by 50%, enforce the retirement of public servants at the age of 60, scrap the budget of first, second, and third ladies, and other ways to cut spending in a televised announcement last week.
According to Ruto, he will create a broad-based government and consult all sectors to help implement programmes aimed at solving the country’s pressing issues. He added that more measures would be announced later.
This is not the first time a Kenyan president has fired his entire cabinet secretaries. The late President Mwai Kibaki dismissed all the cabinet ministers after losing the 2005 Referendum to his cabinet minister Raila Odinga’s No Camp.
“Following the results of the referendum, it has become necessary for me, as the President of the Republic, to reorganize my government to make it more cohesive and better able to serve the people of Kenya… I have directed that the offices of all ministers and all assistant ministers become vacant. Consequently, the occupants of the said offices cease to hold their respective offices with immediate effect,” Kibaki said.
Article by Lena Ndolo
