Moses Kuria: This is Why Ruto Can Reappoint Us to Cabinet

Immediate former Public Service Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria on Thursday disagreed with arguments that President William Ruto should not reappoint any members of the cabinet he dismissed on Thursday, July 11. 

This followed a post by former Law Society of Kenya (LSK) presidents Ahmednasir Abdullahi and Nelson Havi.

Kuria said this was wrong as they had not been subjected to any disciplinary process before the abrupt dismissal.

“As lawyers of (dis)repute, you need to read whatever provisions against the tenets of fair administrative action,” he told the former LSK presidents.

“If your scholarly arguments are to hold water, the affected persons then have to be taken through a disciplinary process or a court martial. Not a class action.”

Havi had argued that dismissal from the Office of the Cabinet Secretaries made the former officials ineligible to hold any public office forever whether appointive or elective.

He said the former cabinet secretaries belonged to the same category as impeached governors or judges who had been found unsuitable to serve.

In support, Lawyer Ahmednasir remarked that Ruto by dismissing Kuria and his colleagues, was satisfied that their conduct, performance in office or their omissions rose to a constitutional level or threshold that warranted their dismissal.

“President Ruto cannot reappoint any member of the cabinet because their dismissal under the constitution implied a grave omission or commission,” he said. .

“That grave constitutional omission or commission hasn’t been erased or addressed in the past week.”

Ahmednasir said should Kuria and his team be reappointed, it would engulf the Ruto into a new political crisis and unparalleled constitutional imbroglio.

While disagreeing with the interpretation, Kuria asked whether a clerk dismissed from a company meant he could not qualify for a certificate of good conduct.

It comes amid reports Ruto is in the process of reconstituting the new cabinet

This came as a new survey by Tifa, 40 per cent of Kenyans felt that performing Cabinet Secretaries should be re-appointed.

According to the findings of the survey, 61 per cent of those interviewed vouched for some of the officials’ reappointment.

The poll was conducted on 16 and 17 July 2024 with a sample size of 1,507.

The sample was distributed across the counties proportionate to population size.

There was a margin error of +/- 2.52 percent during the research which was done through telephonic interviews at the household level.