There has been a viral photo of angry President Uhuru Kenyatta pointing at Sports Cabinet Secretary Rashid Echesa during his visit to Raila Odinga’s home in Bondo, Siaya county. Details have emerged indicating the Head of State was giving a serious dress-down to the CS over the dilapidated state of the mausoleum of the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga.
Sources report by the Daily Nation, the president got annoyed after he found the facility in a very poor condition wondering what CS Echesa had been doing. The mausoleum is managed by the National Museums of Kenya (NMK) in partnership with Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Foundation (JOOF).
The president was told NMK was no longer supporting in management of the facility and some staff members had gone for months without pay prompting him to intervene. The president turned to the CS who seemed shocked and clueless about the management challenges of the site.
“You seem to think the work of a cabinet secretary is to attend all funerals in Western Kenya. Your work is to wait for weekends to attend funerals so that you can abuse people. That is not the work of a CS, it’s for MPs. Seems you don’t know your work,” said Uhuru.
However, it is not the first time the president has lectured his CSs in public given a previous instance where he warned Agriculture CS Mwangi Kiunjuri of dire consequences if he paid cartels in the second round of paying maize farmers.
Already, the president has sent his Cabinet on a compulsory leave and he is expected to make crucial changes as part of his commitment to rid Jubilee administration of the corruption scourge.
The axe is reportedly targeting those who have been widely mentioned in various graft scandals or have simply failed to deliver.Some of the CSs are already suspecting they could be on the chopping board and are said to be working around the clock to undo whatever wrongs they may have done and which could cost them their positions.
Jubilee Party’s vice chairman, David Murathe, who is also presumed to be Uhuru’s right-hand man, had confirmed that there was indeed a Cabinet reshuffle coming soon.