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{Photo courtesy of Victor Matara}

By Nicole Waweru

(Email: wanjirunicole28@gmail.com)

On Monday 17, October, the selection parliamentary committee began vetting President William Ruto’s Cabinet nominees. The nominees are; Musalia Mudavadi, the former Amani National Congress (ANC) leader with a net worth of ksh.4 billion, Justin Muturi, former speaker of the National Assembly of Kenya with a net worth of ksh.700million, Aden Duale, Garissa Township Member of Parliament (MP) with a net worth of ksh.851 million, Alfred Mutua, the former Governor of Machakos County with a net worth of kshs.420 million, and Alice Wahome, the MP of Kandara in Murang’a County with ksh.218 million.

Shock hit Kenyans after the immeasurable wealth of these nominees was revealed in Parliament, this sparked a conversation on Twitter as many Kenyans said that the politics in Kenya is very remunerative. In as much as some had worn the lens of ‘politics being lucrative,’ others had however accredited their wealth to corruption, which is still not a surprise. Some were questioned about their past encounters with corruption scandals like Mudavadi, who was asked about the Goldenberg and Nairobi Cemetery land scams. For the Goldenberg scandal, he told the committee that he inherited the scam at the Treasury at its tail end and some of the transactions were unknown to him whereas, for the Nairobi Cemetery land scam, he said he faced a politically instigated investigation by the then Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission, (KACC) and in the end, the culprits were caught and jailed.

Looking at the wealth attained by these Cabinet nominees, we can see that their wealth is also constituted by separate and individual ventures that they carry out outside of politics. For example, one of the nominees, Justin Muturi, says that his income comes from the pension he is earning after serving as a speaker of the National Assembly for ten years, from farming and legal consultancy. He also added that his property was acquired through bank loans and a civil servant stipend for the last 36 years of his career.

The vetting and nomination process in Kenya is seen to be very orderly, the 12th Parliament amended the Public Approval and Parliamentary Approval Act 2011, to increase the vetting period from 14 days to 28 days. According to research from Mutai, (2022), once the Committee on Appointments receives the list of the Cabinet nominees, the clerk will be required to issue a public notice asking Kenyans with representations to submit memoranda on the nominees. With the nomination process in Kenya, once the Parliament completes the vetting which is set to end by Saturday 2:30 pm, the clerk will notify the President of the decision made within seven days of the decision. Article 152 (1) of the Constitution says the Cabinet includes the President, the Deputy President, and the Attorney-General, and not fewer than 14 and not more than 22 Cabinet Secretaries.So, the question that has been the talk on all social media handles is, “Is politics profitable?” My answer to this is yes. It is no doubt that the Members of Parliament (MPs) in Kenya are amongst the highest paid in the world relative to the size of the economy. Parliament seats are one of the most coveted positions in Kenya this is supported by the holder’s wealth and social ranking. In the years before, there has been an evident trend of those in high senior private sectors leaving, in quest of more laid-back political offices.

As the ongoing vetting goes on, we hope that these nominees are very passionate about what they are fighting for right now, and when they are appointed, they will stick to their word and do fulfill all the promises that they have made. Their words are on record and I am sure many Kenyans will want to see them be true to their word.