President William Ruto is scheduled to travel the Mount Kenya region, but Public Service Cabinet Secretary Justin Muturi has announced that he would not be joining him.
Muturi emphasized that he does not follow the president on trips, pointing said that he did not follow the former president Uhuru Kenyatta on his tours either.
“The president isn’t the only person I follow… I was never in the habit of following Uhuru everywhere he went, even while he was president and I was the speaker,” he stated.
Muturi reiterated after a Saturday meeting with Kikuyu elders in Kiambu that he would only go with Ruto if the visit had a direct bearing on his ministerial responsibilities.
Even missing Cabinet meetings, the CS has been an outspoken critic of the government.
According to a recent interview, he formally asked President Ruto to exempt him from Cabinet meetings until the topic of extrajudicial executions and kidnappings is given priority for discussion.
“Unless one has permission from the President, which is what I sought,” Muturi said on Citizen TV, “attending Cabinet meetings is mandatory.”
Since he had formally written to the head of the Cabinet to request an exemption, he maintained that his decision was not insubordination.
Since openly criticizing the government over kidnappings, which struck close to home when his son, Lesly Muturi, was abducted while with friends, including Embakasi West MP Mark Mwenje, Muturi has not attended any Cabinet meetings.
Muturi claimed that after meeting with President Ruto after his son was kidnapped, the latter got in touch with Noordin Haji, the director of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), and Lesly was freed.
