Public Service Cabinet Secretary Justin Muturi has revealed that his continued absence from Cabinet meetings since his explosive press briefing on January 12 is of his own volition.
Speaking during an interview at Citizen TV on Wednesday night, the CS emphasised that although cabinet meetings are mandatory, he had requested to be excluded from the meetings until an agenda was tabled to the cabinet to debate the issue of forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings.
"In my case, I have written and sought to be excused from attending cabinet meetings unless the agenda of forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in the country is formally tabled before the cabinet through a cabinet memorandum so that the cabinet, as the highest decision-making body, is able to express itself and give the country the way forward," Muturi noted.
Denying claims that this was gross insubordination, Muturi added, "The Cabinet is the highest decision-making body. Everybody in this country is aware of and, in many cases, discussing this issue of forced dissappearances and extrajudicial killings. I have written and said if the cabinet of Kenya cannot express itself, debate, and give a way forward to these issues, then it runs the risk of being condemned as being complicit."
However, Muturi acknowledged President William Ruto's promise to end extrajudicial killings while speaking in Homa Bay on December 27, 2024, although he noted that no clear directions to the relevant CSs were issued to detail a cabinet memorandum to discuss the issue formally.
Since his explosive press briefing on January 12, Muturi has skipped three cabinet meetings, a decision that has since been subject to speculation.
During the briefing, the CS called out the Kenya Kwanza government, which he serves in, for the rampant forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings that have been plaguing the nation for months. The briefing was necessitated by the alleged disappearance of his son, Leslie, during the June Gen-Z protests.
In a subsequent release, Muturi shared a statement narrating the hours his son had spent in captivity, name-dropping the Director General of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) Noordin Haji of being behind the forced disappearance. Reportedly, Leslie was released after the president made a call to the NIS boss.
Among speculations of Muturi skipping the cabinet meetings was that he was on the edge of being kicked out of the cabinet for his revelations.
In the Wednesday night interview, Muturi noted that his stay in the cabinet was entirely up to the president, and he did not have any power over that.
"Staying or not staying in cabinet is the prerogative of the appointing authority, so I don't know how long I am likely to last in cabinet. That is entirely the prerogative of the president, so I have no illusions of how long I could stay," Muturi noted.
"When I took up this job, I was well aware of those provisions of the constitution, so I am alive to that, so whatever happens is purely on the basis of what the President desires."
However, the CS insisted that resigning was out of the question, as that would be cowardly. Instead, he asserted that he would keep addressing the issue while still a sitting CS, as that would be more productive.
