Kenya President Ruto fires Cabinet Secretaries in response to youth protests

In responding to the demands of Kenya youth who have been protesting and demanding that the President fires his Cabinet, William Ruto has sacked all cabinet secretaries.

“I have decided to dismiss with immediate effect all cabinet secretaries and attorney general of the Cabinet of Kenya except the Prime Cabinet Secretary and Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Affairs,” Ruto announced.

The office of the Deputy President is also not affected, he said.

The Kenya president indicated that operations of the Ministries will henceforth be coordinated by Principal Secretaries until a definitive cabinet is appointed.

He also stated that a new cabinet will be named after extensive consultations across all sectors.

“I will immediately engage in extensive consultations across different sectors and political formations, with the aim of setting up a broad-based government that will assist me in accelerating and expediting the necessary, urgent and irreversible, implementation of radical programmes to deal with the burden of debt, raising domestic resources, expanding job opportunities, eliminate wastage and unnecessary duplication of a multiplicity of government agencies and slay the dragon of corruption consequently making the government lean, inexpensive, effective and efficient,” he said.

He said the operations of government will continue uninterrupted under the guidance of Principal Secretaries and other relevant officials, adding that he will be announcing additional measures in due course. 

The fired officials have been in office for barely two years.

Ruto was bent on going ahead with a contentious Finance Bill, 2024. The Bill was a piece of legislation that proposed changes to the country’s tax system and involves tax increases.

The aim of the new law was to raise 346 billion Kenyan shillings to pay off the country’s debt and fund development projects. But the youth of Kenya said enough was enough.

They began expressing discontent on TikTok and that eventually evolved into nationwide protests. The protestors without any known leaders were well organised using social media. The authorities as usual were highhanded in trying to stop the protests by using police and military violence, about 40 youth were killed, with some still missing, but the youth were not deterred. They pushed harder forcing Ruto to call for dialogue, but they refused to talk and kept on protesting offline. The Bill was also scraped.

Now that he has fired the Cabinet, the protestors are calling for his resignation.