Six Cabinet Secretaries had been lined up for sacking on Friday by President Uhuru Kenyatta over mismanagement of resources, negligence and general incompetence, reports the Standard.
It took the intervention of Deputy President William Ruto, who arrived at State House early on Friday morning to save five of them after managing to convince Uhuru to give investigation agencies time to probe them.
But Rashid Echesa, the immediate outgoing Sports minister, would not be spared given his persistent engagement in local politics contrary to the Head of State's wishes.
“The argument from one of the sides was that sacking them without evidence could amount to witch-hunt. It would also subject them to a public lynch mob. But the die was cast when one side posed where the lynch mob will stop at once encouraged with immature sackings,” a source privy to the meeting said.
“The President reportedly called National Intelligence Service (NIS) director Philip Kameru to ask for the report on them. The NIS report was not ready, and that is how the five kept their jobs, at least for now,” disclosed another source within the Presidency.
Besides DP Ruto, Head of Public Service Joseph Kinyua was in the meeting, which also saw the fate of Broadcasting Principal Secretary Fatuma Hirsi relieved off her duties.
The reorganization in the Executive Order No 3 came just a day after a furious Uhuru vowed to have high profile people arrested. At Murang'a on Thursday, Uhuru lauded the approach by DCI George Kinoti and DPP Noordin Haji, even as DP William Ruto and his team castigated Kinoti of shoddy work
For the better part of Friday, Ruto and his team shifted guns against Raila Odinga, whom they blamed of influencing government decisions from back door. The five spared CSs are said to have featured in headlines over graft.