Secrets of how Cabinet was picked

By Mwaniki Munuhe  and Geoffrey Mosoku

NAIROBI, KENYA: President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy,William Ruto, started assembling their list of possible Cabinet nominees immediately after the Supreme Court upheld their election, but surprisingly managed to keep secret until this week.

And that despite the many consultations and diverse choices they had for competence, regional and gender balance and other competing interests.

Even though the two leaders put together a team to collate and sieve through the curriculum vitaes of prospective candidates, the team members were no wiser as the list was way longer than the constitutional threshold of 22 nominees.

The team assisting the President and his deputy in the exercise was made up of university dons, corporate executives, diplomats, politicians and even closes family members.

Part of the team — that operated from the Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC) where the President-elect and his deputy had temporary offices — constituted an initial interviewing panel for the possible nominees.

According to credible sources, President Uhuru’s side was headed by some of his key allies, who included his special personal assistant Jomo Gecaga, while Ruto’s side was represented by a top media manager, who also chaired the panel that included Kericho Senator Charles Keter and former Cherang’any MP Joshua Kuttuny.

Names of the individuals with impressive profiles were then forwarded to State House for consideration before forwarding the names to the National Intelligence Service (NIS), the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission and the CID for clearance.

Surprisingly, neither the initial interviewing panel as constituted by the President and his deputy nor the NIS had any idea of who was likely to make it to the final list because the names provided were almost four times the number of actual nominees.

It was after clearance by the NIS that the President and his deputy initiated interviews with each of those they believed stood the best chance of meeting their requirements. It is worth noting that not all the names cleared by the spy agency and the anti-graft commission were interviewed by the President and his deputy.

“I have never seen this in my entire public career where the country’s chief executive and his deputy interview a nominee,” one of those successful nominees told The Standard On Saturday.

Another nominee added: “The President and his Deputy interviewed me for one and-a-half hours on Wednesday night and by the time I left at about midnight; two other candidates were in the State House waiting room. On Wednesday evening President Kenyatta had assured Kenyans that he would introduce a comprehensive list of nominees to the country by 9 am on Thursday.

He made this promise after apologising to journalists who he had kept waiting for three hours.

Facing vetting

The nominees who spoke to us did not want to be quoted because they are yet to undergo vetting by Parliament. So far, Uhuru and Ruto have named 16 nominees to various dockets. They include former Cabinet ministers Najib Balala and Charity Ngilu, two top Jubilee coalition leaders.

Others are Mr Davis Chirchir, Ms Phyllis Kandie, Ms Ann Waiguru, Mr Felix Kosgey, Prof Judy Wakhungu and Dr Hassan Wario.

Further, The Standard On Saturday were reliably informed that the President and his deputy are considering allocating one of the remaining two seats to Western Kenya and South Rift.

It is understood that some political allies of the President and his deputy will be considered for appointment as ambassadors and heads of government parastatals.

Our sources said that both President Kenyatta and his deputy are faced with a new headache regarding how to accommodate the youth in the Cabinet.

Although the Jubilee coalition emphasised youth participation in all decision-making levels of government, none of the Cabinet secretaries named so far falls within the youth bracket.

The youth agenda was one of the key campaign strategies employed by the Jubilee coalition and which appeared to have yielded votes in the March 4, 2013 presidential elections.

Uhuru and Ruto tasked the nominees to state their track record and how they intended to serve the country if nominated. “I can assure you that if approved as a Cabinet secretary, I cannot afford to sleep on the job since I committed myself to some targets. The President wants rapid results, it was not a joke sitting with the two for almost two hours,” a third nominee said.

On Friday, Kuttuny said they were impressed that highly qualified individuals with a track record had made it to the list. “The President and his Deputy have settled on a list of highly competent persons; that is all I can say,” said Kuttuny, who is touted as a possible presidential adviser on the youth.

Another candidate, Phyllis Kandie, was having lunch at a Nairobi restaurant when she received a call from State House asking her to attend an interview. She was successful.