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No split in Cabinet, Matiang'i says as pressure piles on Uhuru

CSs Matiang'i
Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i on Friday fought back claims of a Cabinet split, amid pressure for President Uhuru Kenyatta to dissolve it.
While insisting that ministers are working as a team, Dr Matiang'i told Kenyans to ignore reports of infighting.
"We have had people talk of a divided Cabinet. That is false. We are working together; you have seen us in different government engagements," he said in Nyeri County at the burial of ICT Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru's grandmother.
Dr Matiang'i chairs the National Development Implementation and Communication Committee, which supervises all government projects including the Big Four.
PRESSURE
Leaders from across the political divide have piled pressure for the President to dissolve the Cabinet following allegations of a plot to assassinate Deputy President William Ruto.
Dr Ruto claimed last week that four of his colleagues in the Cabinet — Mr Peter Munya (Trade), Ms Sicily Kariuki (Health), Mr James Macharia (Transport) and Mr Mucheru were plotting to assassinate him.
As such, several leaders, most of them from the ruling Jubilee Party, argued that the environment of mistrust and division within the Cabinet is affecting service delivery.
The four CSs are part of a team that had been holding meetings at Hotel La Mada.
Mr Munya, who chairs the team whose members include a number of PSs and parastatal chiefs, insists that these meetings are focused on development.
MORE MEETINGS
In an apparent reference to the controversial La Mada meetings, Mr Macharia said at the Nyeri burial that meetings to discuss development in the region will continue.
"Our focus as Cabinet and principal secretaries is development. We always fellowship to discuss that because that's what brought us to the government," he said.
Nyeri MP Ngunjiri Wambugu weighed in, accusing members of Parliament in the Tanga Tanga grouping of creating the notion that ministers are fighting.
He said their goal is to weaken the government's capacity to deliver the Big Four agenda, whose pillars are Universal Health Coverage, food security, manufacturing and affordable housing.
MUNYA'S RESPONSE
On Thursday, CS Munya denied reports that President Kenyatta had ordered him and his Mt Kenya colleagues to stop the meetings at La Mada.
Mr Munya said the ministers had in fact intensified their meetings and devolved them to counties and sub-counties.
Last week, the CS said the claims of a plot to kill the DP are part of a witch-hunt by his political detractors.
"We insist that we will meet again and again, not only at [Hotel] La Mada but elsewhere in Kenya because we have a right as Kenyans. We have not plotted to kill anyone but if he records a statement, we will go back to respond," he said at the time.

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