Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen, on Saturday, May 20, revealed that he was compelled to convene a meeting to chart the way forward after President Ruto caught everyone by flatfooted by firing Health Principal Secretary Josephine Mburu.
Addressing Nyandarua residents, the CS recalled summoning his colleagues in the Transport docket and warned them of impending danger.
Murkomen remembered warning them of losing their jobs if they failed to seal all loopholes in the sector. Following the meeting, the Ministry resolved to terminate contracts of any staff and contractors sabotaging or misappropriating funds.
Murkomen recalled extending the same warning to his friends within the Cabinet, where he told them that the president had cracked the whip.
"It is better we sink a contractor instead of you sinking us because we have seen you have become more harsh than we knew you. I told my friends the way this person is talking, there is impending danger," Murkomen recalled.
"So those words you said recently, I called PS Mbugua and Mohammed and asked them, do you want us to leave or other people? So people who are serving under us, if we make a mistake, we will send you home so that we won't be fired," he added.
Nonetheless, he assured President Ruto that his Ministry had put in place plans to ensure that no penny is misappropriated from his ministry.
"We will ensure that not even a penny would be misappropriated to ensure that corruption in the Ministry of Roads would be a thing of the past. In fact I dare say, a contractor who would do a good job, we do not fear cancelling those contracts and advertising afresh," he insisted.
Ruto fired PS Mburu over mosquito net procuring tender at the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (KEMSA). To stamp more authority, Ruto suspended 27 government officials after condemned sugar that was released.
Kenya Bureau of Standards boss Bernard Njiriani was among the officials sent home by Ruto.
"In recognition of the unique mandate of the agencies as vanguards of public health and safety, it is manifest that some officers in the relevant agencies abdicated their responsibilities, at the risk of public harm.
"Consequently, it is noted that the Cabinet Secretaries for National Treasury and Economic Planning, and Investments, Trade and Industry, have sanctioned administrative action to suspend the officers pending investigations,"Ruto's Chief of Staff, Felix Koskei, stated.
During the Cabinet meeting, Ruto warned the Cabinet Secretaries, vowing to crack the whip even on his friends sabotaging his agenda.
