President William Ruto was accused of poor planning when he separated the roles of his deputy Rigathi Gachagua from those of Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi in his first executive order in 2023.
During an interview on NTV on Friday, January 13, Vihiga Senator Godfrey Osostsi expressed fears over the manner in which the Head of State handled matters of national importance - claiming that it was too soon for Ruto to issue a second order since taking the reins.
The Azimio la Umoja legislator explained that Ruto's predecessors rarely issued executive orders and only resorted to the move when it was absolutely necessary.
Osotsi, therefore, predicted that Ruto would continue issuing orders without properly thinking them out hence throwing the ruling party into disarray.
"This is the second order in a span of two months. Executive orders are not things to be issued within two months. There should be concrete reasons why it should be issued.
"What this says is that there could be planning issues. Why did they not see this coming? They should have an executive order that should have stood the test of time," he stated.
Additionally, he called out Ruto for unlawfully assigning roles to his team despite promising to uphold the constitution.
The senator opined that Ruto should have made amendments to the National Government Coordination Amendment Act of 2013.
However, in a rebuttal, Nominated Senator, Gloria Orwoba stated that there was no limit to the number of executive orders that could be issued by a president.
She added that Ruto's legacy could not be determined by the number of executive orders issued which she stated were to streamline the Kenya Kwanza administration
"What we have is a president who has prioritised planning. If you do not have clearly assigned roles, then that becomes a problem. He is just learning from a path that he has been on before," she asserted.
In Executive Order No. 1 of 2023, Ruto tasked Gachagua with roles relating to the relationship between the national government and county governments while Mudavadi was tasked with overseeing the executive's relationship with the legislature.
In an earlier interview, Political Analyst Herman Manyora had poked holes in Ruto's decision to award Mudavadi a powerful position hinting that the Head of State was grooming the Amani National Congress (ANC) leader to ascend to the top in successive elections.
He further opined that the order was likely to lead to a sibling rivalry between Mudavadi and Gachagua.
"When you create a position of Prime Cabinet Secretary and a Deputy President, certainly there will be some frictions between the two.
"On his long-term game, the president could well be thinking of making Mudavadi his successor. That is also possible," Manyora disclosed.
Ruto's first order - Executive Order no. 1 of 2022 was issued on October 31, 2022, and designated that the office of Prime Cabinet Secretary position would be located at the Railways Headquarters building.
