VENDETTA

Higher Education Minister William Ruto’s allies are bitter with Prime Minister Raila Odinga, following the mini Cabinet reshuffle.

MPs Isaac Ruto and Joshua Kuttuny accused Raila of having a "political vendetta" against the former Agriculture Minister and declared no amount of intimidation would scare them.

"What happened simply confirms that Kenyan leaders have not changed and Raila is another one of those suffering from the African Big man syndrome," said Mr Ruto.

He said the reshuffle had nothing to do with performance, but was a chance for Raila to flex his muscles and show how powerful he is. "It also came out clearly that ODM does not support performance but places its premium to loyalty and sycophancy on the party leader," he added.

The Chepalungu MP said it was unfortunate those who are rewarded are people who "sing praises to the party leader."

He said he does not know what wrong former Energy Assistant Minister Charles Keter committed to warrant his sacking.

"I am not aware of any wrongdoing by Keter and he is an example that one does not need to do anything wrong to be sacked. His only crime is to accompany William Ruto," he added.

Lean cabinet

But ODM Chief Jakoyo Midiwo said the reshuffle was long overdue and should have even gone further.

"There are many incompetent ministers who should have been fired and the reshuffle was not wide enough to deal with that," said Mr Midiwo.

He said the two principals missed an opportunity to downsize the Government, especially during the hard economic times facing Kenyans.

"They should have downsized the Cabinet to about 17 ministers by merging some ministries like that of Health and Lands," he added.

But Mr Kuttuny said the reshuffle was meant to clip Ruto’s sterling performance in the Agriculture docket. "This is Raila’s agenda to finish Ruto because he is leading the ‘No’ campaign, but I can assure you it will fail," he said.

He said the reshuffle was also meant to intimidate other ministers against joining the ‘No’ campaign.

"We shall continue to soldier on with the ‘No’ campaign and we shall not be intimidated," he said.