President Ruto Sacks Entire Cabinet After Anti-Government Protests

President William Ruto has sacked all cabinet secretaries and Attorney General Justin Muturi in response to youth-led anti-government protests. Only Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi, who is also Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary, was spared. Dr Ruto said he would involve other political stakeholders in the process of reconstituting his Cabinet. In the meantime, the President said, government operations will continue under the leadership of Principal Secretaries and other relevant officials.

Dr Ruto on Tuesday announced plans for a broad-based political arrangement, giving credence to the notion that he may be considering co-opting Raila Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement into his beleaguered Kenya Kwanza administration. The president is toying with the possibility of a government of national unity with opposition figures in his administration as part of his way out of the current political crisis triggered by protesting youths who have cornered him and demanded a major shake-up of his government.

It would not be the first time that Kenya has had a government of national unity. When the late President Mwai Kibaki lost the 2005 referendum to the No camp led by his then Roads minister Raila Odinga, he responded by sacking his entire cabinet. When he reconstituted it two weeks later, Mr Odinga and his Liberal Democratic Party members were left out.