Ruto Appoints 11 Members of New Cabinet While Gen Z Announce Tuesday Demonstrations

President Ruto yesterday announced the appointment of 11 members of a new cabinet from State House, Nairobi.

Five of the new members were not new as they were among the cabinet he sacked last week. Questions have therefore been raised about the president’s commitment to reform and adhering to the demands of protestors who have rocked the country with demonstrations now going on for a month.

The legal concerns raised include whether a public officer sacked for incompetence can assume a similar office one week later without having proven that they have been rehabilitated. Another concern raised is whether they are employable at all. The Public Officers Employment Act specifies that a person who loses office through impeachment or sacking on grounds of incompetence including mental incapacitation may not qualify to hold any other public office, ever.

Political figureheads are now driving the narrative that since power abhors a vacuum president Dr William Samoei Ruto should go ahead and appoint his cabinet while a new round of talks on constitutionalism are initiated at the Bomas of Kenya.

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Then Gen Z protestors are having none of these and they have scheduled another round of demonstrations for Tuesday 23 July.

Why did the president re-appoint Adan Duale, Kithure Kindiki, Alice Wahome and Davis Chirchir after they had been mentioned adversely by the protestors as persons whose actions or inactions fuelled the protests in the first place?

Political pundits now think the president wants to shed off the baggage of cronyism as parliament and civil society will obviously see to it that these names do not ascend to the appointed positions.

What is worrying, however, is that the president is buying time, assenting piecemeal to the demands of the protestors in what may ultimately give more impetus to the protests into a full-fledged revolt.

Ruto said in his address that the past month’s events have caused “tremendous anxiety, concern and uncertainty”.

“The crisis has presented us with a great opportunity as a nation to craft a broad-based and inclusive citizen coalition for national transformation and progress made up of Kenyans from all walks of life,” Ruto said in his address.

“Consequently, I have started the process of forming a new broad-based cabinet to assist in driving the urgently needed and irreversible transformation of our country.”

The ministers of the interior, defence, environment and lands were reappointed.

Kithure Kindiki, the head of the Ministry of Interior and National Administration, is also in charge of Kenya’s police force, which is currently facing scrutiny for its response to the protests.

The nominations, which must be approved by parliament, also include Kenya’s first female attorney general.

But activists quickly rejected Ruto’s appointments and posted images with “Rejected” written over the list.

The opposition Azimio coalition slammed Ruto’s announcement as a “cosmetic” change and said it would not join a government of national unity led by Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza.

“This is a betrayal of the Kenyan people, particularly the Gen Z and millennials who have paid the ultimate price to rid this country of the disastrous Kenya Kwanza regime,” it said in a statement.

Protesters have rejected the idea of a unity government, saying a deal between rival parties would only maintain a tradition in Kenyan politics of leaders co-opting the opposition with jobs and perks while the population sees no benefits.