Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has no business to be the Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture and the Chief Executive Officer for National Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse [Nacada]
These are the words of Laikipia North lawmaker Sarah Lekorere, who has thanked God for bringing GenZs for mounting pressure for the removal of some Cabinet Secretaries like immediate Agriculture CS Mithika Linturi who had survived impeachment motion against him
Lekorere noted that it’s illogical for the office of the Deputy President be allocated funds to deal with alcohol and some other crops whereas there are constitutional institutions established to do so
“We can’t have Cabinet Secretaries for the Agriculture and at the same time DP is doing some agriculture related events, those responsible for such dockets should go home if they are not performing,” she remarked
Lekorere was breathing fire over the budget which was slated for the office of the DP to tackle issues of avocadoes, and spearheading the crack down of illicit liquor particularly in central region
“If the office of DP is given budget to hold meetings for avacodoes and coffee farmers what about meetings for people like us who are pastorolists because we keep camels and cattles,” she questioned sarcastically
She noted that the budget for the hospitality, tea and other unnecessary expenditures which had been factored in the current financial year should be scrapped completely
“I beg to request that we should not talk about reinstating the budget for the office of the second spouse which was Ksh2.7 as well as budget for medals, awards and insignia- these are unconstitutional elements and should be given zero budget,” Lekorere who’s serving her second term added
Lari MP Mburu Kahangara wondered why the office of the spouse of the Deputy President was receiving funds from exchequer yet it was not even constitutional
The office of the spouse was it even constitutional because why were we allocating money if in the first place it was not constitutional
Trouble started when Principal Administrative Secretary in the DP’s office Patrick Mwangi who had appeared before the MPs to defend the office’s budget which has been slashed from Sh4.8billion to Sh2.7billion, lobbied for the budget’s reinstatement on grounds that some of the operations they had kick-started would be grounded.
On her part, Nakuru Woman Representative Liza Chelule also wondered how comes National Campaign Against Drugs Abuse has not been proactively sanzitizing people and cracking down illicit alcohol instead their duties were transferred elsewhere
“I was wondering when we did not budget for Nacada which does a lot for this country, we have lost many people because of addictions to drugs which we can control as a country,” Chelule pointed out
Saku Member of the Parliament Diddo Rasu requested the office of DP to utilize the amounts set for the office of the spouse of the Deputy President to retain secretariat because it was not their fault to lose the opportunity
In the supplementary estimates, Treasury withdrew Sh557m which had been allocated to Dorcas’ office
However the office has pleaded with the National Assembly Committee on Security and Administration not to recommend further budget cuts because it will negatively affect some of key functions the DP was carrying out without disclosing them
The MPs also rejected attempts by Mwangi to have budgets for sector reforms that include coffee, tea, dairy, avocado, potatoes, fights against substance abuse menace such as alcohol and drugs reinstated. Mwangi explained to the MPs that the programmes would be affected should funds not be availed.