PRESIDENT Uhuru Kenyatta yesterday threatened three Cabinet Secretaries with unspecified action after they skipped a youth entrepreneurship forum in Nairobi.
“Soon, we shall change this and we shall see the difference,†warned the President.
The President publicly dressed down the CSs, saying that ministers are happy to attend functions where deals involving large amounts of money are cut but not matters to do with the youth.
“I am looking at the programme and it is disappointing that there is no government here – other than Devolution CS Anne Waiguru. When we have such a local forum, they are missing in action and when they are negotiating deals out there, they all run there,†Kenyatta said.
Kenyatta directly named Treasury CS Henry Rotich, Education’s Jacob Kaimenyi and Industrialisation’s Adan Mohammed.
Though not mentioned by the President, EAC and Commerce CS Phyllis Kandie was also supposed to be at the event attended by youthful entrepreneurs.
It is understood that President Kenyatta is planning a major reshuffle of his Cabinet in the next few days, where he will bring new faces into government.
Yesterday Kenyatta said Kaimenyi, Mohammed and Rotich were supposed to be at the function at Strathmore University that kicked off the Global Entrepreneurship Summit scheduled for July. The Summit is cohosted by the US and Kenya and will be attended by President Barack Obama on his first visit to Kenya as the tenant of the White House.
The President, who appeared to be distinctly irritated by the absence of his CSs, repeated remarks made during his Madaraka Day speech that “soon, we shall change this and we shall see the difference.â€
The forum brought together youth entrepreneurs for an interactive discussion with government over ways to improve the business, innovation and entrepreneurial environment in the country.
Kenyans were shocked with the president’s public pronouncements; here is how one wise G Oguda captured his thoughts on FB:
“I am only here with Anna (Waiguru). Rotich should be here, Kaimenyi should also be here, but they are nowhere to be seen. But when there are deals to be made with foreigners, you will see them rushing there. That should stop.†– President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Goodness me. That’s the President of a democratic republic confessing that his ministers are extra paper-chasers attracted to foreign thumb-greasers. If that statement isn’t enough testimony that we are being led by a government of deal-makers and money-sniffers, then I don’t know what is.
I can tell you for free that if Raila Odinga was the one who made that statement up there, that mockery of a State House communications team would have been having a deflated ball here telling us how the opposition has no moral authority to lecture them on good governance and leadership.
But I shall be branded a CORD sycophant, and my last name will be dragged in the mud, something I made peace with a million years ago.
Still, We Rise – above petty politics
Another wise Kenyan from the Savanna posted thus:
This is where Uhuru get it wrong, you don’t wash your dirty linen in public, this is like a Headmaster telling students how incompetent science teacher is.
Mr President you are right but te forum is wrong, keep this kind of talk to cabinet meetings.
You sound desperate helpless man.
Additional repporting by the STAR.
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