July 13, 2023, will mark President William Ruto's nine months in office since taking over the instruments of power on September 13, 2022.
The Head of State has, in the period, recorded wins for his administration's prosperity including delisting over 7 million Kenyans from the Credit Reference Bureau (CRB), approving a Ksh66 billion Moderna vaccine facility to be constructed in Nairobi and securing funds for the construction of 100 dams across the country.
In the same period, the President's development agenda also suffered misses that derailed his development agenda, case in point the High Court ruling suspending the Finance Act, 2023 which threatens to throw the executive into financial turmoil.
President Ruto's tenure has been eventful to say the least. Since being elected, there has been some high profile policy gaffes that have led to the Head of State's orders being reversed.
We delve into some of the most notable ones below;
1. Reopening of Kenya - Somalia Border.
In May 2023, the Head of State was confident that his decision to reopen the Kenya-Somalia border within a 90-day period was timely. In his plan, the process was to be carried out in three phases beginning with the opening of the Mandera - Bula Hawa border by June 2023.
“It was and still is the right decision because we have to confront the challenges of Al Shabaab. We intend and have every chance to defeat the terror group," Ruto insisted in June after the first border point was opened.
On July 6, Interior CS Kithure Kindiki rescinded the directive by closing the border and extending the reopening period after a spike in cross-border attacks and crime.
"We need to streamline issues touching on our security before we open. We need a good review of the entire thing," a source from the Ministry explained to Kenyans.co.ke. The new timeline for the reopening process is still not clear.
2. CAS Appointment
To boost service delivery across departments, the Head of State appointed 50 Chief Administrative Secretaries (CASs) to assist his 22 Cabinet Secretaries.
The appointment process raised eyebrows in March when the National Assembly, headed by Speaker Moses Wetangula, declined to vet the CAS nominees arguing that the exercise was not under the house's purview.
Ruto, however, appointed the CASs anyway a few days later, a move that attracted the attention of Katiba Institute and the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) who filed a suit against the move.
A 3-judge bench later, on July 3, 2023, declared the appointment of the entire crop of CASs unconstitutional effectively rendering them jobless.
3. Lowering Gas Cylinder Prices
When he assumed office, part of Ruto's manifesto was anchored in promoting clean energy consumption by boosting the use of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) for cooking.
Speaking during the launch of the Women Enterprise Fund at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) on Thursday, March 2, 2023, the Head of State assured that a six-kilogram gas cylinder will cost between Ksh300 and Ksh500 (down from over Ksh4,000) by June 2023.
The plan, however, hit headwinds in mid-May after the proposal failed to appear in the supplementary budget estimates.
'If we had succeeded to have that in the supplementary budgetary budget, then that would have happened from June 1,'' Ruto explained at the time. The timelines of the project's rollout are still a mystery.
