Huge Perks Ruto's Cabinet Secretaries Will Get

The newly appointed Cabinet Secretaries (CS) by President William Ruto will be treated to an array of delicious benefits once they are approved by the National Assembly.

Following their announcement on Tuesday, September 27, CSs will undergo vetting by a parliamentary committee. They are part of the cabinet which consists of the President, Deputy President, and the Attorney General and are classified as state officers under the executive arm of the National Government.

The mandate of the CSs is to head and manage ministries per the Constitution of Kenya. They are all accountable to the president and provide the Parliament with regular reports of their ministries.

Legally, a maximum of 22 cabinet secretaries is allowed at any given time during the reign of a Kenyan president.

With the weight that comes with holding a precious position in government, anyone holding a CS role is accustomed to a plush of benefits.

According to a recent gazette notice by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC), a cabinet secretary (CS) gets a monthly salary of Ksh924,000. This is broken down to a basic salary of Ksh554,400, a house allowance of Ksh200,000 per month and a monthly market adjustment of Ksh169,000.

They are also accorded transport; CSs get an official car with an engine capacity not exceeding 3000cc. That means they can drive luxury cars such as Mercedes Benz, Land Rover, BMW, Toyota SUVs among others that fall in the category of 3000cc and under.

For medical benefits, an annual medical cover is provided which caters to one spouse and up to four children below the age of twenty-five years fully dependent on the state officer.

It is broken down as follows: Inpatient: Ksh10 million, Outpatient: Ksh300,000, Maternity: Ksh150,000, Dental: Ksh75,000 and Optical: Ksh75,000.

CSs also get a car loan of up to Ksh10 million and a mortgage of up to Ksh40 million. They also get Ksh20,000 of monthly airtime and an annual leave allowance of Ksh50,000 per annum.

They also get a daily subsistence allowance for local and international travel as well as personal security. President Ruto had frozen the CSs who served in former President Uhuru Kenyatta's administration from foreign travel before he replaced them, except two and a Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS), Ababu Namwamba.

Ruto's New Changes In Cabinet

The Cabinet this time round sees three new dockets introduced with the Devolution one thrown away in Ruto's quest to realise his bottom-up economic agenda. One of the key roles by former Devolution CSs which was to foster good relationships between the devolved system of government and the national government was assigned to Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua.

The president created the Co-operatives, Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) docket to spearhead reforms in one of the economy's biggest contributors. He assigned the role to distinguished public servant, Simon Chelugui, one of Uhuru's CSs who was retained in the purge.

In the previous administration, MSMEs development was under the Ministry of Industrialization and Trade. In his daily duties, Chelugui will coordinate with former Gatundu South MP, Moses Kuria and Njuguna Ndung'u who were appointed CSs for Trade and Investment and Treasury respectively. 

Newly appointed secretary to Cabinet, Mercy Wanjau. /KARA

Harriet Chigai, a renowned lawyer will advise Ruto on women's rights in the Cabinet. This docket will fulfil Ruto's promise to introduce a women's rights agency to protect women from Gender-Based Violence (GBV).

Ruto also tasked commercial lawyer Mercy Wanjau as the secretary to the Cabinet, having worked as the Director of Legal Services at the Communications Authority of Kenya. She takes over from Joseph Kinyua, the Head of Public Service who had managed this docket in Uhuru's government.