President Kibaki chairs a past cabinet meeting. Photo/FILE
By EMEKA MAYAKA-GEKARA emayaka@ke.nationmedia.comPosted Thursday, December 30 2010 at 22:04
Civil society groups have asked President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga to trim the Cabinet.
The groups demanded that the current 40-plus-member Cabinet should be reconstituted by reducing its numbers to below 22, citing Article 152 of the Constitution.
“With the new Constitution, there is no reason for the principals to hold onto the bloated outfit,” said the groups in Nairobi on Thursday.
The coalition was set up primarily to restore order following the 2008 post-election violence.
They demanded, a leaner, cheaper and clean Cabinet during a press conference addressed by Mr Harun Ndubi of Haki Focus, Mr Ndung’u Wainaina of the International Centre for Policy and Conflict and Mr Cyprian Nyamwamu, the National Convention Executive Council executive director.
“All public officers who cannot pass the integrity test should, as outlined in the new Constitution, resign or be sacked.”
The organisations accused politicians of a plot to protect those named in connection with the post-election violence.
They also asked foreign nations to stop transacting official business with the suspects popularly referred as the Ocampo Six.
They include Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, Public Service head Francis Muthaura, Industrialisation minister Henry Kosgey, Postmaster General Hussein Ali and Eldoret North MP William Ruto.
The civil society groups asked President Kibaki to kick Mr Kenyatta and Mr Kosgey out of the Cabinet.
“They should be sacked. They are no longer untouchable,” said Mr Wainaina, who presented what they termed an audit of the coalition.
International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo seeks to prosecute the suspects at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
The suspects have maintained their innocence and declared that they will cooperate with the prosecutor.
But Mr Wainana alleged that one of them had travelled out of the country and unsuccessfully attempted to bribe a possible witness with Sh5 million.
Mr Ndubi also asked the President to reject the motion passed by Parliament pushing for Kenya’s withdrawal from the Rome Statute.
Before their Christmas break, MPs passed a motion advising the country to apply for withdrawal from its obligations to the Statute setting up the international court.
To speed up judicial reforms, the group asked President Kibaki to advertise the posts of chief justice, attorney-general and the chief public prosecutor and ensure that the process of filling them was above board.
The new law requires Chief Justice Evan Gicheru to leave office any time before February 27.
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