Explain why you came late! Ruto calls out CSs and PSs
President William Ruto has taken action against certain Cabinet Secretaries and Principal Secretaries who arrived late at State House for a performance contract signing event.
He has requested them to provide written explanations for their tardiness and made it clear that traffic delays should not be used as an excuse.
“If you cannot keep time when your employer has called you, know that you have already sacked yourself. For those who came late, I will need an explanation but it should not include traffic,” the Ruto said.
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Interior CS Kithure Kindiki and his Trade and Industry counterpart Moses Kuria were barred over lateness and did not sign their contracts.
According to an official programme released by State House Press Secretary Emmanuel Talam, the event was to begin at exactly 8 am.
Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, who was also present, wondered why some of the CSs and PSs were late, saying there could not be any justification for that.
“I saw some were late, and I looked at the President in the eye and realised there would be trouble for them. You can’t arrive at an event when the President is already seated. Why would you come late? How do you explain that? Who did you go to see, and yet today was the most important day for you to sign contracts?” he wondered.
The president, at the same time, declared a firm commitment to hold all government officers accountable for their actions while in office.
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The president addressed negligence, misappropriation of funds, and corruption within various ministries.
He expressed deep concern over several officials’ apparent lack of awareness about the happenings within their ministries.
“I shall hold every officer in the government office to account for their office. I will deal with Negligence, misappropriation of funds corruption. I have found that many of you don’t know anything that is happening in your ministry through our interactions. I call many PS and ask them what is happening and yet they are not aware of what is happening, how do you run a ministry without information? That is the highest level of incompetence,” he said
Different ministries and offices were given contracts entailing targets they will be needed to achieve during their tenure.
The 21-CS team was appointed in September 2022 by President Ruto and the 51 PSs were later appointed in November.
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