19 Cabinet Secretaries (CSs) appointed by President William Ruto were sworn in on Thursday morning, August 8, after being approved by Members of Parliament on Wednesday, August 7, 2024.
President Ruto officially gazetted the appointment of 19 CSs in their respective dockets in line with Article 152 (2) of the Constitution.
Here is the President’s full speech:
“It is true, and I freely admit today, that due to sub-optimal communication of our development agenda and a feeling of insufficient public engagement, we have lost many opportunities to walk the journey of transforming Kenya with everyone aboard, leaving some citizens unable to connect with the policies, programmes and projects that have been rolled out throughout the country.
At the same time, many public officials have fallen short of the constitutional standard for public officers, as laid out in Article 10, Chapter 6 and Chapter 12 of the Constitution, which make it clear that we, as public officers, are the servants of the people, and that the totality of our actions and conduct must reflect this fundamental principle and the highest standard of integrity required of public office.
The people of Kenya work hard and endure tremendous difficulties in their quest to fend for themselves and create opportunities for their families. Majority of people are managing intense pressures arising from local and global economic, geopolitical and climatic circumstances.
Kenyans are neither afraid of struggle nor labour; we are proven serial winners at both. All they ask, and all they need is a government that maintains an enabling environment for them to succeed and stays out of their way while they go about their work. Kenyans demand, and not only deserve, but are constitutionally entitled to servant leadership; all levels of the public service, from the Cabinet all the way to the grassroots have no choice but to live up to the truest standard of servant leadership.
Consequently, and taking these into account, we shall proceed to take unprecedented steps to accelerate the delivery of the national economic transformation agenda with integrity, efficiency, transparency and inclusivity.
During the past month, I have made an effort to keep my promise to engage in extensive consultations with leaders from diverse sectors, both public and private, with a view to constituting a broad-based government, powered by an inclusive bipartisanship that will accelerate and turbocharge the radical transformation of our economy and country.
Broad-Based Government
More than ever, it is clear that we are fully united by a shared devotion to secure a prosperous Kenya that serves us all. For this reason, I am persuaded that this moment in the life of our nation calls on us to build a strong ‘team of rivals’ to give our transformation agenda the best chance of success and to enhance inclusivity in national development.
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With the formation of this broad-based government that brings together former political rivals into one selfless, patriotic team, we will unlock the potential of our country that has long been denied to us by factional and sectarian competition. Our potential as a nation and the attainment of that potential has often been undermined by divisions arising from political competition.
Where Kenya is today, while competition is healthy and good, there is a moment where the interest of a nation is greater than the interest of a political formation. This is such a moment, and it is the reason why I have reached across the aisle to bring on board the knowledge, expertise, and experience of deserving Kenyans, though belonging to a different political formation.
I am persuaded that a moment such as this in the history of our nation calls on patriotic citizens to forge an alliance of rivals to harness our collective political capital, knowledge, and expertise to take the strides necessary to make our country great.
Ruto Praising Kenyans for Supporting Govt of National Unity
With profound gratitude, I commend the leaders and citizens from all walks of life who reached out, participated in and otherwise supported the consultations, not only for the patriotism which inspired them to place Kenya before their personal, sectarian or partisan agenda, but also for invoking the spirit of bipartisan dialogue which has never failed to reconcile bitter rivals and unite fierce competitors in navigating critical junctures throughout the history of our nation.
It is this noble spirit this willingness to negotiate, to listen, to find common ground in the middle of conflict, that drew our freedom fighters from the forests to the negotiating table at Lancaster House in London. It is also this wonderful gift that brought together the agitators of the Second Liberation from the streets to the Inter- Parties Parliamentary Group dialogue, and thereafter to the Bomas of Kenya where our constitutional history was properly written.
The ability to talk things out also enabled Kenyans to pull the nation back from the brink of an existential precipice and embark on a National Accord which gave birth to the institutional dispensation that we are still working hard to perfect.
Here we are again, today, called upon to remember the lessons of history, to live up to the demands of this moment and set aside our partisan interests in order to show up for Kenya. The work of making our nationhood more perfect through inclusion, unity, equity and social justice must begin by speaking with each other, listening to one another and recognising that everyone of us wants the best for this nation, and all of us have a part to play in making Kenya great.
Bottom-Up Economic Agenda
The firm foundation we have built over the last two years on the basis of the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda focused on job creation, development of local industrial capacity, and wealth creation through:
i. Transforming our agriculture for food security, and agro- industrial acceleration
ii. Harnessing the potential of our Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises to drive our economic progress
iii. Exploiting the opportunities in our digital superhighway to promote technological and creative capabilities on an unprecedented scale.
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iv. Investing in universal health coverage to provide all citizens without discrimination with high-quality healthcare through social health insurance and the employment of thousands of healthcare professionals to provide promotive, preventive as well as curative services.
v. The radical increase in the number of affordable and social housing units through the affordable housing strategy, which has delivered millions of direct and indirect employment opportunities for a variety of professionals, as well as investment and business opportunities for enterprises and industries.
Ruto Speaks on the Role of the CSs
The reconstituted cabinet will accelerate the attainment and will build on this solid foundation already built over the last two years, but additionally will focus on the following critical areas:’
i. The first of these areas covers accountability and the fight against corruption. To enhance accountability and promote responsibility for the use of public resources, we shall introduce measures to levy a surcharge against any accounting officer or other public officer who has, by their actions or omissions, occasioned loss of public resources in accordance with Articles 226(5), 201(d); and 232(b) of the Constitution.
ii. To eliminate the ‘ghost worker’ payroll fraud at all levels of Government, we shall also implement a Unified Personal Identification system for all personnel working across all the arms of government, including constitutional commissions.
iii. Further, the Cabinet shall introduce a legal and institutional framework for mandatory and continuous vetting of all public officers. The same framework will provide the repository of wealth declarations across the entirety of Government under one office.
Fighting Corruption
iv. In addition, we shall facilitate expeditious investigation and prosecution of all offences related to corruption and economic crimes through amendment of the relevant statutes, including the Evidence Act and the Criminal Procedure Code, and provide for their determination within 6 months.
v. We believe that our war on corruption will be significantly boosted by measures to make it easier and safer for citizens and whistle-blowers to come forward and report corruption and economic crimes. For this reason, the reconstituted cabinet shall consider relevant amendments to the Witness Protection Act to enhance appropriate incentives.
vi. Furthermore, as I indicated in my earlier address, I have engaged with the parliamentary leadership with a view to expediting the enactment of the Conflict of Interests Bill and expressed my determination to sign a robust, effective instrument into law in due course.
vii. I further reiterate my determination to make full use of the opportunities within our legal and institutional structures and systems to consult and collaborate with national justice, law, and order institutions with a view to promoting their efficacy in expeditiously and conclusively investigating all active cases within a specific timeframe.
viii.As pertains to the management of public expenditure, I believe that the time has come for us to break new ground. That is why, beginning in the 2025/26 financial year, we shall adopt a zero-based budgeting system to re-orient the budgeting and expenditure framework of the Government.
ix. Similarly, we shall exploit the power of information and communication technology to radically diminish opportunities for corruption, conflict of interest, and abuse of office by digitizing procurement and making it open and transparent.
x. Likewise, we shall initiate a framework to make the VAT refund process open, transparent, and accountable, because the immense savings out of this expenditure of public funds will finance investment in productive and transformative economic projects.
xi. The reconstituted cabinet will also collaborate with parliament to develop legislative measures to promote local manufacturing, value addition, and job creation by restricting the importation of those products that can be competitively produced by our domestic industrial capacity.
President Ruto Asks New Cabinet to Deliver
We stand at the beginning of a new chapter of our country’s governance and development. The women and men who have been appointed to serve the nation in the reconstituted cabinet have today embarked on a mission that cannot and must not fail.
The people of Kenya have made their expectations known in bold terms; they have also made their intolerance for failure, inefficiency, corruption, and ineptitude equally clear. As champions of the nation’s development agenda, you will be team players, servant leaders, faithful trustees, effective stewards of the people’s interests, and dependable custodians of their resources.
I am confident that each one of you has what it takes to deliver on your mandates and to satisfy the people’s expectations. This is important because, henceforth, the terms of our contract with the people will remain in sharp focus, and we have no choice but to keep our part of it.
The privilege to serve in positions of such high responsibility has come to you with an immense duty to do everything in your power to ensure that Kenyans receive the best services from the government efficiently, without discrimination, and without delay.
I urge you, therefore, to go forth and from this day, focus on delivery, and dedicate your time and effort to the implementation of the various strategies, programmes, and projects that the nation’s transformation demands. I encourage you to make the people of Kenya your first and only priority and to never let your own interests come in the way of your duties.
I give you my assurance of my full support in discharging your mandates, and in executing a reimagined and catalysed transformation agenda. I have already given my undertaking to be the foremost steward of public resources and embraced my accountability for its proper use. Therefore, it is important to make it clear that my support for you ends if it conflicts with my accountability to the people of Kenya. Let us therefore work together in doing the right thing, and we shall be assured of success.
I pray that Almighty God grants you strength, wisdom, clarity, and focus as you assume office, and I wish you success in your new assignment.
Thank You, God Bless You, God Bless Kenya.
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