Former Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mithika Linturi has claimed that Cabinet Secretaries in the Kenya Kwanza government frequently lack autonomy, particularly during appointments, reinforcing earlier statements from former Attorney General and CS Justin Muturi.
Speaking during an interview at Weru TV on Sunday, Linturi recalled an instance where an appointment he had made to the Pyrethrum Company of Kenya (PCK) was revoked in a gazette notice without his knowledge.
According to the former CS, he had made the decision to extend the appointment of the director of the parastatal on a Wednesday, but the gazette notice on Friday revoked the appointment. This was despite the CS using his office to confirm to the director that his tenure would be extended.
"Ministers have no power. They do not sign anything. Names are printed on the gazette notice claiming that they made the appointments," Linturi claimed.
In an earlier instance, he recalled a close friend of his and the current Vice Chancellor of Meru University of Science and Technology, Prof Simon Thuranira, was dismissed from his then position as the chairperson of Bukura Agricultural College.
Linturi recalled that his name was published as the one who had revoked the appointment, even though he did not have anything to do with it.
This, he stated, was the first time he ever complained about the appointments by writing a letter to the government printer clarifying that he had not made the appointments.
"I told my boss that I have a constituency in Meru, and there is no way they can keep getting fired through my name without my knowledge, even after committing myself," he stated.
Thereafter, Linturi took up the matter with the Head of Public Service, Felix Koskei, urging him to look into the matter, but according to the former MP, that did not change.
Due to this friction, Linturi admitted that his relationship with Koskei was a rocky one, as he defied several of his directives on appointments.
"My relationship with Felix Koskei was very bad because he did not listen to anything I said, because I used to question some of the doings in government more than once," he relayed.
"Even renewing the contract of Kubai at the AFC (Agricultural Finance Corporation) was out of protest. The letters were there, but the head of public service did not want to. He asked me to appoint other people, but I refused and told him I would rather get fired."
In addition to these appointments, he claimed that some parastatals would have the same ethnic tribe occupying a majority of the seats, like one which had 26 out of 40 employees of the same tribe.
