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Sonko reshuffles cabinet as he scolds ‘lazy’ ministers who love ‘playing golf’


Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko has yet again reshuffled his cabinet after publicly reading a riot act to his executives over increased corruption cases and laziness at work.

Lands and Housing Executive Charles Kerich has been moved to the Finance and Economic Planning, docket swapping places with Winfred Gathagu.

On Wednesday, Governor Sonko said he will not hesitate to fire lazy and corrupt members of his administration vowing to continue his policy of firing and reshuffling county executives and chief officers.

‘PLAYING GOLF’

“I am being blamed for constantly reshuffling or firing my executives but I will not stop because some are just playing golf instead of coming to work, while others are hiding documents from investigators who come here to investigate corrupt dealings. Like today (Wednesday), I am going to do a reshuffle,” said Mr Sonko during the launch of a biometric registration and identification system for the county workers.

Mr Kerich now returns to a docket he briefly held in an acting capacity last year. He has formerly held ICT and Health dockets in an acting capacity.

Ms Gathagu is also a former Economic Planning chief officer.

Ms Gathagu’s might have been cooked as early as Monday when the governor made an impromptu visit across all executive offices to check on the staff who were at the office.

During the visit, captured on Facebook Live, Sonko found the Finance Executive absent and instructed the officers who had accompanied him to take note.

“Some of my executives come here as angels but as soon as they join the cartels they change. I want to tell them today I will not hesitate to fire them because some think that because they were brought here by godfathers they cannot be fired,” he said.

SIXTH RESHUFFLE

This is the sixth reshuffle the governor has made since he assumed office in August, 2017. In that period, he has also sacked former Finance Executive Danvas Makori, former County Secretary Peter Kariuki and did not renew contracts for two executives Emmah Muthoni and Peter Wachira.

The first rejigging of the cabinet was on February 26, 2018 followed by another one in April then August. In 2019, two such reshuffles have happened, in January and April, before this latest one.

The City Hall boss accused his executives of being involved in corrupt dealings behind his back vowing to invite officers from both the Directorate of Criminal Investigations and Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate the said officers.