The coordination of government functions which used to be undertaken by Prime Minister Raila Odinga was hurriedly taken over by the incoming Deputy President William Ruto.
However, last week saw the functions reverting to the office of the president where they initially belonged.
With the presidential appointment of Joseph Kinyua as the government Chief of Staff and Head of Public Service, with powers of coordination and implementation of government programmes, Deputy President William Ruto’s role detoured back to the pre-coalition government days – a principal assistant to the president.
A legal wag (acting pro bono for The National Alliance) over the weekend enumerated to this writer that the reason for Kinyua take-over is very simple: Ruto took over the roles unconstitutionally!
“The constitution”, my friend said sententiously, “was not made to massage political egos” and continued mnemonically as if to remind me of the times, “we are a country of laws”, ending his tirade with this legal zinger to fully outweigh this writer; “there was already a constitutional crisis”.
He was ‘clear in his mind’ that it was a matter of time before someone went to court to seek legal redress over the issue. To him, the petitioner would be a CORD sore loser still gnashing the wounds of March 4 and living in the pre-nostalgic era of Raila Odinga as the ‘Prime Minister’.
CORD people, he told me, hope that the current president and deputy operate as ‘principals’ in the former bloated government. He said CORD wants Ruto to be another Raila with his own budget allocation, own people to hire and fire as well as own ‘self’ to appraise.
“This is what the Supreme Court rejected. It instead affirmed that Ruto will function as the assistant to the president. How can a president ‘coordinate’ mere functions of ministries?” I was asked.
I reminded him that the president recently distributed title deeds, a ‘mere function’ of a cabinet secretary. He retorted back, gulping an extra-ordinarily larger sip, that what the President deed was only to  ‘officiate’ the ‘ceremony’ of distribution of the title deeds.
“He was acting within the law. Within the new constitution. Within the presidency.” he lectured, putting his opinions side by side with his facts, preempting most things ‘jubilee people’ imagine Cord people think about them and their government.
For now, at least Ruto should know why his ‘role’ of coordination was taken away. He is too high up the Jubilee ladder to ‘coordinate’ government programmes.
By Dikembe Disembe