That there could be a chill in the working between Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto is the talk in town. The matter played out last week when Ruto kept Uhuru waiting at State House for hours only to reject a cabinet shuffle list Uhuru had prepared.
This week, we reveal the names of the people Uhuru had appointed to the cabinet which Ruto rejected. Top was that of former Chief of the General Staff Julius Karangi.
According to the list, Uhuru had split the ministry of Interior and Co-ordination into two ministries where Karangi was designated to head the new ministry of Homeland Security leaving Joseph Nkaissery with that of Co-ordination.
The ministry’s core function is to keep Kenya safe and secure and to coordinate national government functions.
According to the new line-up, Karangi was to be in charge of Internal Security covering police, immigration, prisons and correctional services while Nkaissery was to be left with the core function of coordination of government functions and services at the county and subcounty levels.
Ruto claimed, by Uhuru appointing his man to head the security docket, this was going to take away the powers of the Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinnet who is a Ruto man. Currently, Nkaissery is the one controlling the security docket and he is said to be going on well with Boinnet.
Karangi is a well-known Uhuru loyalist and is now one of his lieutenants in Central region. Karangi comes from Nyeri county.
Another name that Ruto rejected is that of the Malindi North MP Gideon Mung’aro. Mung’aro had been appointed to replace suspended Labour CS Kazungu Kambi. Kambi who is allied to Ruto’s URP insisted that his replacement had to come from his URP side. Mung’aro and Uhuru are political bed fellows having known each other when Uhuru was the chairman of Kenya Tourism Board and Mung’aro, the mayor of Malindi where he did well on tourism.
It is not, however, known which name Ruto had preferred to replace Kambi but sources say he had requested that Kambi be reinstated back to the cabinet.
Uhuru’s proposal to include Mung’aro is a plot to get foothold in Kilifi after Mung’aro had bitter fallout with Cord leader Raila Odinga after his demotion as minority whip in the national assembly. Kilifi is considered ODM political turf.
The chairman of the Committee on Implementation of Constitution Charles Nyachae’s name had also featured in the Uhuru list. He had been marked to take over the Devolution docket leaving the embattled Anne Waiguru with Planning Docket.
Ruto’s rejection of Nyachae was based on the fact that he has his own people in Kisii whom he had preferred appointed to the position and saw it as a political plot by Uhuru advisers to woo Kisiis. Currently, Ruto enjoys more support from the Abagusii community compared to Uhuru. The man who has been said to be doing ground work for Ruto in Kisii is deputy governor Joash Maangi.
Sources say although Maangi is ODM, his political links cuts across the political divide in Kisii and has come out to be influential man in Abagusii politics. He is believed to be the Jubilee’s gubernatorial candidate in 2017. Already, his boss James Ongwae has panicked knowing that Maangi is a shrewd politician. According to sources, Ruto had wished Maangi gets the position as he claims that Nyachae is close to Uhuru family by virtue of Nyachae’s step-mother coming from the Mount Kenya region.
Ruto has never forgiven the Nyachae family after he was forced to flee when violence erupted as they were viciously attacked by youths in South Mugirango constituency when they attempted to attend a fundraiser presided over by Nyachae. Ruto was accompanied by Omingo Magara.
Another contentious issue was Uhuru’s insistence that cabinet secretaries allied to Ruto were to be replaced. Ruto had insisted that Felix Koskei and as well as Chief of Staff Marianne Keittany be reinstated back to the cabinet.
Sources say Ruto had agreed that Davis Chirchir be replaced and the name that had been proposed is that of Julius Kones. He is former Konoin constituency MP and in 2013 elections he contested the Bomet gubernatorial race.
To show that DP Ruto has soft spot for Kones, through his proposal and influence, he was appointed board chairman of the National Water Conservation and Pipeline Corporation by Uhuru. Guv Ruto has been complaining that the DP has been grooming Kones to vie against him in 2017.
Ruto is said to have been working on a plot to wrestle the South Rift from the DP. South Rift comprises the Kispsigis sub tribe of the Kalenjin and is the most populous and accounts for close to 43pc of the Kalenjin population.
Ruto is also alleged to have stood his ground that if Waiguru was not going to step aside then Marianne had to be reinstated unconditionally.
According to sources, Uhuru had not fronted names of CSs to replace Michael Kamau and Charity Ngilu something that Ruto did not take kindly and which was interpreted to mean that the two who are allied to TNA could find their way back to the cabinet.
Citizen
