Duale: Ruto's loyal lieutenant who always lands on his feet

Environment Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale has emerged as President William Ruto’s blue eyed boy, always on speed dial whenever a cabinet slot needs to be filled. He is quickly evolving into a key figure within President Ruto’s administration.

Duale, who initially served as the Cabinet Secretary for Defense when Ruto took power in September 2022, was sacked last year alongside his colleagues during the height of the GenZ revolution in July. However, he made a comeback after being appointed as the Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Forestry. 

He had supported the government by deploying the military to the streets at a time when the country is belatedly learning that there was an attempt to topple the government.

Although he was one of the biggest casualties when he was removed from the lofty Defense position and relegated to the Environment, Climate Change, and Forestry docket, he sparked controversy once again when he allowed the harvesting of trees in Karura forest. He was also involved on Wednesday in discussions about the troubled Health docket.

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Behind Forestry, he has left a policy where the government plans to lease all state forests in the country, a policy currently undergoing public participation.

Duale and Ruto are not strangers, having been in the trenches together since their days in the Opposition during the early days of ODM, all the way to when they clinched power under the Jubilee administration. The then Garissa Town MP rose to become Leader of Majority. As Majority Leader, he risked it all by contradicting then President Uhuru Kenyatta in favour of his nemesis, Deputy Ruto.

In Duale’s autobiography For the Record, it’s clear that he and Ruto have been close friends, standing by each other through thick and thin.

Paid the price

He recalled that Uhuru used to fire his allies on flimsy accusations to politically smear anyone seen with him, and that “Duale is one of those who paid the price.” He said on the day Duale was “politically hanged, drawn, and quartered, Ruto had no words.

“Even when the President nudged me to speak, I knew he just wanted to further humiliate me. He was firing my close friend, a trusted political lieutenant, yet he wanted me to speak, knowing fully well that I wasn’t going to publicly confront him,” Ruto said.

Ruto revealed that Duale stood up to the security bureaucrats in Uhuru’s administration, challenging the politics of lies, deceit, and perpetuation when confronting the Al Shabaab menace. He said the security agents tried to sideline him but ultimately paid the price.

“They tried to sideline him, but Duale was so effective at his work that if he had stayed quiet, there was no way the security laws would have seen the light of day. Yes, the bureaucrats, in their overzealousness, added an illegal clause, but thankfully, the courts did their job,” Ruto explained.

He emerged as a beneficiary yesterday after the Cabinet reshuffle, communicated by Felix Kosgey, Chief of Staff and Head of Public Service, as he secured the controversial yet lucrative Health docket.

The biggest casualty was Public Service and Human Capital CS Justin Muturi, who was axed and replaced by Mbeere North MP Geoffrey Ruku, the only Democratic Party (DP) sponsored MP serving in the National Assembly.

Muturi’s exit from the Cabinet followed three months of publicly criticising the Kenya Kwanza administration and directly linking the government to the abductions of its critics by state agents.

If Ruku is approved by his peers to join the Cabinet, Muturi, who has been the DP party leader and campaigned for Ruuku in his constituency, will hand over to his fellow constituent.

Power sharing formula

The Democratic Party (DP) has been a constituent party of the Kenya Kwanza administration, with Muturi appending his signature to the power-sharing formula between the party and other parties that formed the Kenya Kwanza coalition.

Muturi’s troubles with Kenya Kwanza began in January this year when he boldly criticized the government led by President Ruto over the spate of abductions in the country. He revealed that it took Ruto’s direct instructions to have his son released by National Intelligence boss Nordin Hajji.

Muturi called for the establishment of a commission of inquiry to investigate the abductions and urged his boss to end kidnappings and extrajudicial killings in the country.

To formalize the DP’s split from Kenya Kwanza and prove Muturi had severed ties with the President, the party wrote to the Registrar of Political Parties on March 12, giving a 30-day notice to exit the Kenya Kwanza coalition, stating that their continued presence in the alliance was no longer tenable.

But Ruku, who also serves as the member of the National Executive Council (NEC) maintained he was not involved in the decision and that it was no longer binding.

“I will continue to work closely with the President and I will be supporting the government policies and leadership. I am a member of the party but I don’t remember attending such a meeting where we discussed that the Democratic Party is going to pull out of the Kenya Kwanza coalition so to that extent, that is not a decision which I can say is binding to me. From where I sit, I will continue working closely with the Kenya Kwanza coalition,” Ruku said.

Ruku’s appointment as a CS was also seen as a reward for his controversial bill to regulate protests, which he sponsored following the Gen Z protests last year.

The bill, known as the Demonstrations Bill 2024, sought to grant the State sweeping powers over protests, including deciding when and where they could occur. It was rejected by the Departmental Committee on Security after being opposed by various lobby groups.

The bill aimed to ban protests on highways and other public spaces, arguing that such demonstrations disrupt public order. It also sought to grant the Interior Cabinet Secretary the authority to impose strict rules on how protests should be conducted.

Ruto’s decision to axe Muturi came a day after he accused him of being fairly incompetent during his reign as the Attorney General in an Iftar dinner at State House.

“I had a problem with the AG who was there before—he was fairly incompetent. But now, I have a very competent lady in the position, and I can assure you that the issues of Waqf will be sorted out within months,” the president stated. 

 “Under the Waqf Act No 8 of 2022, there’s no provision for a Muslim Endowment Fund. It must be understood that a Waqf is a religious, charitable or benevolent endowment by a person who professes Muslim faith and is managed by the Waqf Commission,” Muturi retorted. 

Muturi’s exit also came after a group of Ruto allies from the Mt Kenya region pleaded with the President to stop antagonizing the region by firing government leaders from the area and replacing them with leaders from other communities. They told the President that this move had put them at odds with their constituents.

Isolating region

The elected leaders reportedly told the President that the action played into the former Deputy President’s narrative, which portrayed Ruto as isolating the Mt Kenya region from the rest of the country and labelling him a “use and dump” leader.

“We registered our concerns with the President, stating that we are being seen as nincompoops, witnessing our people being de-whipped from the government they elected, yet we are voiceless,” an MP said.

Political experts have described Ruto’s decision as a serious political gamble, noting that selecting an MP for the CS position would trigger a by-election—a political chess move that could result in his loss due to his dwindling political popularity in the Mt Kenya region. “The move may be a strategy by the President to test the waters during the by-election, to see whether his decision to pick Ruku will be rewarded by the electorate. If not, it would confirm that Mt Kenya is lost to him, allowing him to re-strategize for his re-election game plan,” said Dr Charles Nganga, a JKUAT academic.

According to Nganga, Ruto’s actions had also weakened the Democratic Party, as its only elected leader was now in government, a move that could fuel a divide-and-rule strategy targeting both Embu and DP members.

Meanwhile, Dr Deborah Barasa, who was removed from the Health docket, will now take over Duale’s previous docket.

The wife of the late Baringo Senator William Cheptumo, Hanna Wendot, was nominated as the Cabinet Secretary for Gender, Culture, Arts, and Heritage, a position that has remained vacant since July 11 last year after the National Assembly rejected the nomination of Soi Lang’at. Lang’at was rejected for failing to demonstrate knowledge of the topical, administrative, and technical issues related to the portfolio she had been nominated for.