Ruto plans to keep Cabinet, PSs on toes

Cabinet and Principal Secretaries’ performance will be gauged on their implementation of President William Ruto’s manifesto in a radical plan to keep government officials on toes.

The CSs and PSs will, for the next two weeks, negotiate their performance contracts, which will feature their key performance indicators with time-bound targets, a move that the President hopes will help enhance efficiency and effectiveness in his broad-based government.

The CSs are expected to make commitments as well as elaborate timelines within which they will implement the Head of State’s lofty promises during and after the campaign period before signing performance contracts.

They are expected to be appraised based on the said commitments, with a planned assessment of CSs retained in Ruto’s new government expected later.

The ministries will also be assessed on their level of automation and progress in running paperless departments, the implementation of presidential directives and the utilisation of donor funding.

A schedule of the meetings, which will be led by Deputy Chief of Staff, Performance and Delivery, Eliud Owalo and Secretary to the Cabinet Mercy Wanjau, shows that ministries that fall under the Bottom Up Economic Transformation Agenda (Beta) will be the first to negotiate their contracts.

Owalo said the move aims to institutionalise performance management in the public service and enhance the framework for accountability.

“Ordinarily, people will deliver what is inspected, not what is expected. This is the rationale for inspecting performance by institutionalising performance management in the public service, with performance contracting at the centre of it,” said Owalo. 

He said that performance would tie to a rewarding system, which proposes sanctions for non-performers, whose progress would be monitored digitally. The statement mirrors that made by Ruto, who during the swearing in of his new CSs said he would not hesitate to act on poor performers.

Cabinet Secretaries Andrew Karanja (Agriculture and Livestock Development) and Wycliffe Oparanya (Cooperatives and MSMEs) will have their sessions on Monday, with Salim Mvurya (Investments, Trade and Industry) and Alice Wahome (Lands, Public Works Housing and Urban Development) following on Tuesday.

The four ministries are among those tasked with implementing some of the Beta pillars, which also include healthcare and the digital superhighway and creative economy, which fall under the Health and ICT ministries, respectively. CSs Debra Barasa (Health) and Margaret Nyambura (ICT) will meet the Owalo-led panel on Wednesday.

Among the parameters within which Karanja could be assessed include the implementation of the fertiliser subsidy, enhancing agricultural productivity and providing agricultural extension support.

On his part, Oparanya has Ruto’s flagship Hustler Fund that was aimed to boost the MSMEs sector to worry about. Barasa has a full plate with the realisation of the Universal Health Coverage.

Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi will have his day on Thursday, as will Water CS Eric Muga, with Kithure Kindiki (Interior) and Davies Chirchir (Roads and Transport) wrapping up the first week on Friday.

Members of Ruto’s former Cabinet signed a one-year contract for the previous financial year in August 2023, and an appraisal was expected at the end of the fiscal year. Such plans were thwarted by the youth-led protests that forced the Head of State to sack all CSs except Mudavadi.

Ruto appears keen to avert public discontent over his presidency, which sparked recent youth-led protests. Perceived non-performance by CSs was one of the main issues Gen Z raised.