CS Alfred Mutua’s Haiti Comment That Led to Exit Of Foreign Affairs Docket
Alfred Mutua, the former governor of Machakos, was reassigned to the Tourism and Wildlife Ministry as a result of Wednesday’s Cabinet reshuffle by President William Ruto. Mutua was stripped of his strategic Foreign Affairs portfolio and reassigned to the Tourism and Wildlife Ministry.
After this occurred, political analysts compared the transfer to a demotion due to the Foreign Affairs Ministry’s influence.
This position is supported by an Associated Press (AP) report that links the transfer to Mutua’s comments on the deployment of police to Haiti.
CS Mutua issued a statement minutes after the United Nations Security Council voted in favor of Kenya’s request to dispatch police officers to Haiti, indicating that the government planned to deploy the police shortly thereafter.
The publication took exception to the fact that Mutua issued a statement specifying when Kenya would deploy police officers to a North American nation before President Ruto.
When he issued his statement, it was instructive that President William Ruto refrained from predicting when the police officers would be deployed.
Governance, law, and democracy experts speaking to PoliticalPulseChat, alluded to the possibility of a ministerial blunder.
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The Expert described a two-tiered procedure for issuing official statements on such a significant matter.
The first, according to the governance expert, is for the relevant ministry to prepare two statements; one for the Head of State and another for the Cabinet Secretary.
The Foreign Affairs team then transmits the President’s speech to his handlers, who polish it and tailor it to what the President would prefer to say.
“The problem is that the President’s team does not have the opportunity to look at what the CS’s speech looks like so it does not supersede that of the President in terms of content and autonomy,” Expert pointed out while speculating on what could have gone wrong.
“It could also be that he was allowed to speak about the technical bit of the mission and the President was supposed to speak on overarching issues that are a bit more encompassing.”
Regarding Mutua stating the Head of State, The Governance expert explained that it is standard protocol for a CS to speak first on matters about his jurisdiction.
According to protocol, the President then affirms or refutes the official cabinet position by expressing a distinct opinion.
CS Alfred Mutua’s Haiti Comment That Led to Exit Of Foreign Affairs Docket
