I’d like to fully associate with Prezzo Bill Ruto’s idea that he should change his Cabinet as often as he changes his clothes.
After all, only he has the power to hire — and rarely fire — but recirculate incompetent officials to other government agencies where skill deficits will not be too obvious to a discerning public.
I’d like to encourage him to think of Cabinet appointments as gigs, renewable after every three months, as this will have many more indirect benefits.
First off, the only person with institutional memory of those entities will only be Prezzo Ruto — he has boasted of that already — and this will leave his appointees increasingly insecure and easy to manipulate.
If quarterly reviews don’t seem effective, he could try monthly appointments. In any case virtually everyone in Kenya has joined the gig economy, which necessitates multiple hustles to stay afloat.
So Cabinet Secretaries will be serving as land brokers, logistics manager (with fleets of vehicles leased to line ministries), and caterers and tent makers. They could even join the illegal printers on River Road to produce fake title deeds.
I mean, they do that already, but it’s not structured. These endeavours should be documented and acknowledged as legit businesses for tax purposes.
The other reason is to pre-empt corruption. We saw it for ourselves when some of those chaps were being interviewed.
Their wealth, real and imagined, revealed a growing portfolio at a time the economy is contracting and everyone is losing money—besides those in government.
This raises interesting questions because: a) some overstated their wealth to allow wriggle room to accommodate future thefts, b) they had stolen already and wanted that recorded as their official wealth and c) all of the above.
Finally, monthly gigs in the Cabinet would be a severe body-blow against tumbocrats (both male and female) who all aspire to migrate from Umoja Inner Core (nothing against the hardworking folks who live there) to the suburbs of Runda where houses are designed to parody uniformity, revealing the limited imagination of the dwellers.
So, please change your Cabinet regularly, Mr Prezzo, and no one will accuse you of incompetence. You are simply working with what you have.
I’d like to fully associate with Prezzo Bill Ruto’s idea that he should change his Cabinet as often as he changes his clothes.
After all, only he has the power to hire — and rarely fire — but recirculate incompetent officials to other government agencies where skill deficits will not be too obvious to a discerning public.
I’d like to encourage him to think of Cabinet appointments as gigs, renewable after every three months, as this will have many more indirect benefits.
First off, the only person with institutional memory of those entities will only be Prezzo Ruto — he has boasted of that already — and this will leave his appointees increasingly insecure and easy to manipulate.
If quarterly reviews don’t seem effective, he could try monthly appointments. In any case virtually everyone in Kenya has joined the gig economy, which necessitates multiple hustles to stay afloat.
So Cabinet Secretaries will be serving as land brokers, logistics manager (with fleets of vehicles leased to line ministries), and caterers and tent makers. They could even join the illegal printers on River Road to produce fake title deeds.
I mean, they do that already, but it’s not structured. These endeavours should be documented and acknowledged as legit businesses for tax purposes.
The other reason is to pre-empt corruption. We saw it for ourselves when some of those chaps were being interviewed.
Their wealth, real and imagined, revealed a growing portfolio at a time the economy is contracting and everyone is losing money—besides those in government.
This raises interesting questions because: a) some overstated their wealth to allow wriggle room to accommodate future thefts, b) they had stolen already and wanted that recorded as their official wealth and c) all of the above.
Finally, monthly gigs in the Cabinet would be a severe body-blow against tumbocrats (both male and female) who all aspire to migrate from Umoja Inner Core (nothing against the hardworking folks who live there) to the suburbs of Runda where houses are designed to parody uniformity, revealing the limited imagination of the dwellers.
So, please change your Cabinet regularly, Mr Prezzo, and no one will accuse you of incompetence. You are simply working with what you have.
By Peter Kimani