Nairobi — Azimio La Umoja One Kenya Alliance legislators have called on President William Ruto to reign in on his Cabinet Secretaries who have been engaging in sideshows instead of delivering on promises to Kenyans.
Led by Minority Leader Opiyo Wandayi and Minority Whip Junet Mohamed, they stated that a section of CSs within Ruto's government were engaging in road side declaration oblivious to the fact that the campaign period had ended.
Wandayi castigated Transport and Roads Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen for hoodwinking Kenyans by releasing the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) contract which he stated was not a contract at all.
He lamented that instead of the Transport CS focusing on ending the ongoing pilot strike, he is now busy engaging on sideshows on the SGR contract.
"As CS Murkomen was pulling this juvenile prank, a more serious crisis involving his ministry was unfolding. Pilots attached to the national carrier, Kenya Airways, were going on a catastrophic strike," he said.
He warned that the nation might take years to recover from the losses made during the pilot strike due to the ongoing harsh economic times.
"The country is losing hundreds of millions of shillings everyday as a result of the pilots strike. The image of the country is getting dented by this strike and the national carrier, which has been struggling over the decades, is likely to take a beating from which it may take another decades to recover, if at all," Wandayi stated.
The Minority Leader further criticized the sentiment by the newly appointed Education CS Ezekiel Machogu saying that the government will stop financing public universities insisting that the announcement showed lack of leadership.
Wandayi questioned whether Machogu's sentiments were based on a cabinet decision or it was merely a personal pronouncement at a time when fundamental programs like research that has suffered over the years due to poor funding.
"Nobody knows where that was coming from. Nobody knows when that fundamental policy shift was arrived at and why it was kept away from the public and stake holders. Nobody knows what happens to the thousands of young Kenyans and parents who depend almost entirely on government support to afford university education," he stated.
In a joint statement, the lawmakers called on Ruto's administration to show leadership in the issues affecting the nation including the ravaging drought, unemployment and the tough economic time.
"We remind the President and his team that the country is crying for leadership. The country is crying for leaders that will bring it together and also make the decisions needed to tackle the monumental challenges our people are going through," the Ugunja MP said.
Machogu has however clarified that the government will continue funding public universities.The CS on Tuesday said his sentiments which he made at Dedan Kimathi University last weekend had been taken out of context, saying that all he asked was for Universities to also explore other ways of generating revenues so as to complement government capitation.
Machogu who was speaking at the Kiambu Institute of Science and Technology assured that the government will never stop funding public varsities.
"Nobody said that university funds are going to be done away with, our universities relax, the government will continue funding universities. All I am asking is what I said in Dedan Kimathi that if there are other ways of generating income in our universities why not," Machogu stated.
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CS Machogu said that there should be no cause for alarm regarding universities funding, noting that the funds are ring fenced and no one can interfere with them.
"The allocated capitiation which includes sh 50 billion for universities and another sh 15 billion allocated to the Higher Education Loans Board is ring fenced and no one can interfere with it. Even the cost cutting measures being implemented in other departments can't interfere with these allocations," he said.
He also committed to ensure the implementation of Kenya Kwanza government campaign pledge of increasing University research funding.
"In the Kenya Kwanza manifesto if you look at the education charter we have promised to increase research funding from the current 0.8 per cent to 2 per cent," stated Machogu.
