Karua wants Cabinet reconstituted to meet gender rule

Narc Kenya leader Martha Karua now wants President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto to consider reconstituting the new-look Cabinet to achieve the two-thirds gender rule as demanded by the Constitution of Kenya 2010.

Speaking in a lawyers’ conference on Saturday at a Diani Hotel in Mombasa, Karua said the President should dismantle the new-look Cabinet and consider women in new appointments to ensure the constitution is not infringed.

Tuesday evening, President Kenyatta made changes to the Cabinet by moving some Cabinet Secretaries to different Ministries and appointing new ones in the dockets that were left vacant after some CSs were suspended over graft allegations leveled against them.

The changes made by the President saw Joe Mucheru nominated the Cabinet Secretary for Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) replacing Dr. Fred Matiang’i who moved to the education docket, Sicily Kanini Kariuki, CS nominee for Public Service, Youth and Gender Affairs, Dr. Cleopha Mailu, the CS nominee for Health replacing James Macharia who moved to Transport and Infrastructure, and Willy Bett, the CS nominee for Agriculture.

Kericho Senator Charles Keter, a close ally of Deputy President William Ruto, was named as Davis Chirchir’s replacement in the energy docket.

Those who retained their ministries included Major Gen. (Rtd.) Joseph Nkaissery (Interior), Rachel Omamo (Defense), Ambassador Amina Mohamed (Foreign Affairs), Adan Mohamed (Industrialization), Eugene Wamalwa (Water and Irrigation), Henry Rotich (Treasury), Hassan Wario (Sports) and Judy Wakhungu (Environment).

Fomer Cabinet Secretaries that were linked to graft by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission which implicated Felix Koskei (Agriculture), Davis Chirchir (Energy), Charity Ngilu (Land), Michael Kamau (Transport and Infrastructure) and Kazungu Kambi (Labour) did not find their way back.

Karua’s call for Cabinet re-constitution comes barely three days after the Gender and Equality Commission through its chair Winfred Lichumba protested against the move by the President to ignore the Constitutional threshold on gender and regional balance.

Lichuma appealed to the President to consider reconstituting the Cabinet to raise the number of women to achieve the two-thirds gender rule.

The Amani National Congress (ANC) leader Musalia Mudavadi on Wednesday also accused the Head of State of forming a government that favors a section of Kenyans while disadvantaging others.

Mudavadi, said the new-look of Cabinet as announced on Tuesday does not represent the face of Kenya and is not all inclusive