In what looked like sacking of all ministers nearly two decades ago during the Mwai Kibaki era, Kenyan President William Ruto has announced his decision to dissolve his entire cabinet, save for his deputy Rigathi Gachagua and principal cabinet secretary Musalia Mudavadi.
While Kibaki’s November 2005 cabinet dissolution followed defeat in a referendum on a draft constitution his government was supporting (up to 3.5 million Kenyans voted against the draft constitution), Ruto’s decision to dissolve cabinet has been prompted by deadly protests spearheaded by Gen Zs.
Just like Kibaki said, with the defeat, it had “necessary” for him “to reorganize my government to make it more cohesive and better able to serve the people of Kenya,” Ruto has also noted that he had reflected on how Kenyans perceived his government and its performance and would now work towards a broad based government.
So, from President Ruto’s words, Kenyans can expect to have a broad based government informed by “consultations across different sectors and political formations and other Kenyans both in public and private.”
President Ruto has also said that Principal Secretaries – PSs – will be in charge of government operations until he has announced names of people that will be in his new broad based cabinet.
“During this process, the operations of government will continue uninterrupted under the guidance of Principal Secretaries (PSs) and other relevant officials,” said Ruto in his address that lasted a dozen minutes at State House Nairobi.
To fill the vacuum created by the sacking of his cabinet on Thursday, July 11, 2024, and make protesting Gen Zs rethink their plans of forcing him to exit, Ruto has also said he “will be announcing additional measures and steps in due course.”
And again, unlike in Kibaki’s 2005 cabinet dissolution case when the then president said he would announce his new cabinet within two weeks – and indeed did so – Ruto did not say when his next cabinet would be expected.
It remains to be seen if Gen Zs will stop protests calling for Ruto’s resignation after the president withdrew the Finance Bill 2024 and dissolved his cabinet.
His initial response to the deadly protests which killed tens of Kenyans was labelling protesters ‘dangerous criminals’ and their actions ‘treasonous.’ If protests continue, Ruto could be in his final days as president. And Kenya’s political and economic crises could worsen.
You can see names of cabinet secretaries (ministers) fired by President Ruto Here.
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