President William Ruto has dumped more former Cabinet Secretaries in the Foreign Service, nominating CS Prof Margaret Ndung’u (ICT) and Dr Andrew Karanja (Agriculture) to serve as envoys to Ghana and Brazil respectively.
The two barely served in their dockets for half a year, having been sworn in on August 8.
The President through a statement by Head of Public Service Felix Koskei on Thursday, also nominated former Sports minister Ababu Namwamba as Kenya’s Permanent Representative to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP)/United Nations Office at Nairobi (UNON).
If approved by the National Assembly, Ababu replaces Amb. Gertrude N. Angote, who was posted as the High Commission in Zimbabwe.
Angote, a lawyer by profession, was vetted for the UNEP job in April, and only presented her credentials in September this year.
After losing his post following the dismissal of the Cabinet after Gen Z demos, Ababu took up a role as president of the Africa-China Legal Alliance.
In Brasilia, Dr Karanja will replace Amb. Lemarron Kaanto, who has served in the capacity since 2020.
FOLLOWING IN UHURU’S STEPS
By offering former ministers and fired senior-ranking executive officers diplomatic postings as a soft landing at the expense of career diplomats, President Ruto is picking up from where his predecessor, Uhuru Kenyatta, left.
In 2015, President Kenyatta dropped Deputy Inspector General of Police Grace Kaindi and named her an envoy but her station was not announced. She was to wait for the Foreign Affairs ministry to deploy her after she contested her being forced into retirement in court.
In August 2018, President Kenyatta dropped seven Cabinet secretaries and named them ambassadors. These were Judi Wakhungu (France), Cleophas Mailu (UN, Geneva), Prof Jacob Kaimenyi (Belgium), Hassan Wario (Austria) [although he didn’t take up the job after a graft conviction], Dan Kazungu (Tanzania), Phylis Kandie (UNESCO) and Willy Bett (India).
Later in October 2020, Uhuru named former electoral commissioners who resigned in a huff as envoys. They were Margaret Mwanchanya (Islamabad),Dr Paul Kurgat (Moscow), Nkatha Maina ( Rome).
According to senior directors at MFA, the high number of political appointees as envoys has been undermining the implementation of Kenya’s Foreign Policy, while at the same time frustrating career diplomats at the headquarters.
