The parliamentary vetting, which began Thursday, is taking place against the backdrop of public murmurs over integrity of some of the nominees, the retention of six persons who served in the Cabinet dismissed on July 11, and the inclusion of opposition leaders in what is set to be a team of rivals.
At least one petition has been filed in a local court seeking to bar the four opposition members from taking their positions in the new Cabinet while the country’s official anti-corruption body wrote a letter to parliament opposing the appointment of one of the nominees it says is under investigation for corruption.
On Thursday, the US, in a tweet posted on the X (formerly Twitter) handle of its embassy in Nairobi, appeared to warn the Kenyan parliament against approving individuals implicated in corruption for appointment to the Cabinet.
Although the tweet fell short of stating exactly what action the US would take in case the tainted nominees are approved, it would no doubt worry President Ruto as he prepares to formally appoint his new ministers.
Last year, the US was believed to have influenced Cabinet changes in Kenya after an incident in which then visiting Trade Representative Katherine Tai refused to meet then Kenyan Trade minister, Moses Kuria, to discuss a proposed free trade agreement between the duo.
Mr Kuria, who attracted the US attention with his extremist views on individuals and institutions on social media, was transferred to the Ministry of Public Service in the subsequent Cabinet mini-reshuffle in October.
Between 2019 and 2022, the US State Department also imposed sanctions against a former Kenyan attorney-general and a former county governor for alleged ‘involvement in significant corruption’, barring them and members of their families from travelling to there.
Perhaps an even bigger test for President Ruto will be how to handle the inevitable political fall-out sparked by inclusion of members of the opposition party, Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), in his so-called broad-based government amid threats of impeachment against Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua over the wave of anti-government protests in June and July.
The demos, which saw parliament overrun on June 25, broke out on June 18 as a resistance against punitive tax proposals and have been largely linked to digital activists in the Gen Z movement, which characterises itself as ‘leaderless’.
But at the peak of the unrest, Mr Gachagua publicly accused the country’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) of trying to concoct evidence linking him and former President Uhuru Kenyatta with sponsoring the protests.
Read: Gachagua trump card in battling political siege
A number of his aides are reported to have been questioned by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) over the protests.
His frosty relationship with President Ruto seemed to thaw in recent weeks, with the duo addressing public peace rallies together in some parts of the country.
However, threats of his impeachment have escalated in the wake of the naming nominees to his reconstituted Cabinet.
Although the push for Mr Gachagua’s impeachment is led by MPs affiliated to the governing Kenya Kwanza Coalition, the rapprochement between President Ruto and ODM party leader Raila Odinga may have emboldened them.
Mr Gachagua and Mr Odinga are sworn political enemies, with the Deputy President having in the past warned he would consider breaking ranks with the President if he entered a power-sharing agreement with the former prime minister.
For his part, Mr Odinga has taken issue with the Deputy President’s divisive public utterances likening the current government to a private company in which the different ethnic communities hold shares based on the number of their votes in the 2022 elections.
In the highly likely event that ODM chooses to cooperate with the Majority side in Parliament, the anti-Gachagua group could have little problem mobilising the constitutionally required two-thirds of members voting for an impeachment motion in both the Senate and the National Assembly to oust the Deputy President. By Otieno Otieno
