Members of Parliament allied to the Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Alliance have rubbished President William Ruto’s 22-member Cabinet nominees list.
Led by Ugunja MP James Opiyo, the Opposition legislators raised concerns about the integrity of some of the Cabinet appointees.
They faulted Ruto for including politicians who have been linked to cases of graft and theft of public resources.
“In an economy that is crying for revival, it is shocking that the UDA administration has packed the proposed Cabinet with some men and women who should be in jail for engaging in economic crimes and sabotage of the country,” the MPs said.
“Most of the nominees suffer acute financial and ethical deficit which the appointing authority is aware of but chose to ignore in nominating them because, it would appear, in this administration, ethics and accountability won’t matter.”
The lawmakers warned Kenyans to brace for difficult times ahead if the appointees are cleared by Parliament to take up the ministerial positions.
“Equally worrying is the fact that a good number of the nominees have no demonstrated record of critical thinking that this country requires to dig itself out of the economic mess we’ve had for the past ten years,” said the MPs.
“If approved in its entirety, this will be the least inspiring Cabinet in Kenya’s history. It is the least qualified to manage the affairs of the state.”
The Azimio MPs vowed to oppose the Cabinet nominees during vetting.
“We will be saying more on these nominees in the coming days and particularly during the confirmation hearings in the National Assembly,” said the MPs.
“Our initial take, however, is that Kenyans should prepare themselves for very difficult times ahead but they must know that there are a lot of questions about some of them and we will be asking those questions relentlessly.”
The Opposition MPs spoke in Nairobi on Wednesday, September 28.
