Kenyan President William Ruto sacked almost his entire cabinet, July 10, save for his Deputy President Geoffrey Rigothi Gachieta, and Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi, who serves as Foreign Minister. The Kenyan constitution provides for a Presidential cabinet of between 14 and 22 members. Ruto’s cabinet had a top-heavy 22 members, and its dismissal has been one of the key demands of the Gen Z protesters over recent weeks.
Ruto has additionally scrapped the position of Chief Administrative Secretary, essentially a deputy for each and every Cabinet Secretary. Although the position was not created by Ruto, but by his predecessor President Uhuru Kenyatta, in 2013, it has served to signify part of the “corruption” in politics, serving as nothing more than spoils of victory, taking from the country while providing nothing for it. This, too, was also a key demand of the Gen Z demonstrators.
In spite, or because of, this “downsizing” of government, international rating agency Moody’s cut Kenya’s credit rating from Bbb to Caa1 on July 9, thus placing Kenya’s debt into “junk” status. The downgrade reflects Kenya’s “significantly diminished capacity to implement revenue-based fiscal consolidation,” Moody’s said, in a release quoted by Business Daily, and means that any future borrowing will come at an even higher (interest rate) penalty.
With these moves—putting people before the profit of bankers—President Ruto has put the nation of Kenya on a separate course from that which London and Wall Street “bondholders” would have for it.
