WARIGI: Mr President, treat your ministers courteously

At times President Uhuru Kenyatta needs to distinguish the big difference between Cabinet Secretaries and employees of his family businesses. He should keep that in mind in the way he talks to ministers. Berating them in public as if they live on his personal payroll is not right. During his recent visit to Namibia, one of the events on the itinerary was a meeting with Kenyans working in that country.

He chose to scold in a rather rude way Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Monica Juma over shortcomings in diaspora registration for the new generation passports. It was not an edifying sight. The President should watch a replay of that video to get what I mean. Whenever he is unhappy with his ministers – which seems to be frequent – he should preferably call them for a private chat where he can vent all he wants. Humiliating them in public does not reflect well on him.

Unfortunately, the Juma episode was not an isolated incident. I have seen Transport CS James Macharia subjected to similar treatment when Uhuru was touring the Coast region to inspect stalled road projects. At last year’s Nairobi ASK show, the President was at it again, openly wagging a finger at Agriculture CS Mwangi Kiunjuri and spewing angry words at him in vernacular over payments to maize cartels. Please, moderate this style of engagement Mr President. A firm word spoken discreetly behind closed doors is more effective than a public outburst. However, the most talked about episode from the Namibia diaspora forum was a line in Uhuru’s speech where he vowed not to spare anybody, even his “closest political ally”, in his war on corruption. Social media users were quick to draw conclusions on who the President meant. But what was intriguing was the subsequent move by the President’s social media handlers to pull down his Twitter and other social media handles, claiming there had been “unauthorised access”. In other words, we were being told that somebody had hacked into the President’s social media accounts. When the sites later came up, the particular comment had been deleted from the online video. (Too late, the video had already circulated all over the internet).

I know there are many fake accounts that troll Uhuru’s official online pages, but in this instance it did not seem like any of the accounts had been hacked. The handlers had deliberately suspended them because of a comment they felt uncomfortable with. I think Uhuru’s teams need to style up. In my opinion, the remark they chose to edit out of his speech was really no big deal. In fact that is what he should keep on stressing – that there will be no sacred cows in the anti-graft war. In the normal scheme of things, nobody would have taken excessive notice of it until the social media accounts were pulled down and the comment removed. That was an overreaction.

Meanwhile, there has been wild speculation over last week’s encounter between Uhuru and Deputy President William Ruto at the latter’s office. Excited acolytes of the DP’s even deemed it to be the “Handshake” to overturn the famous one of March 9 last year. We were informed the two even had a “working lunch” in the office together. The public euphoria was intoxicating. It was the first time, I think, that the President was calling on his deputy in his Harambee Annexe offices since Jubilee took power. More significantly, it was a rare display of comradeship in what has been an unmistakably strained relationship ever since the latest war against corruption commenced.

One view had it Uhuru wanted to pull a united face with Ruto at a time Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni – representing one of the most important of Kenya’s trading partners – was due for an official visit. Sure enough, the two were on hand together to welcome the Ugandan leader in Mombasa where he landed. Another angle was that Uhuru’s show of camaraderie was intended to snuff out a rumoured plan by pro-Ruto MPs to disrupt the President’s State of the Nation speech to be delivered in Parliament on Thursday. As if to confirm the second line of speculation, an elated Majority Leader Aden Duale and avid ally of Ruto, speaking immediately after the Harambee Annexe meeting, enthused that Jubilee MPs were “excitedly” awaiting the President’s speech.

Will the President relent on his anti-corruption campaign? The proof of the pudding is in the eating. As Duale spoke, a cheering group of pro-Ruto Jubilee MPs, drawn out by Senator James Orengo’s foolish proposal to impeach the DP, were outside Parliament Buildings hailing the Uhuru-Ruto meeting as “the way forward” and denouncing the March 9 “Handshake” as “divisive”.

Alas, at a Nepad function at State House the following day, Uhuru had an unexpected reply for this group: The anti-corruption war and his engagement with “the other side” (meaning the Opposition) would not stop. “Find something else to do on weekends,” he told them scornfully, alluding to Tanga Tanga weekend campaign outings.