Opposition calls President Ruto’s cabinet change ‘cosmetic,’ as six former ministers retained

KENYA – Kenyan Opposition figure, Kalonzo Musyoka, has called the country’s Cabinet change “cosmetic,” saying nothing would change as long as the William Ruto administration was in office.

Musyoka said that any opposition party joining the broad-based government would be doing so as an individual party and not as the opposition coalition, according to a report by Africanews.

Musyoka was reacting to a move by Ruto on Friday of appointing the first 11 members of his Cabinet, retaining six former ministers in the key portfolios of defense and interior.

Shortly before the president’s announcement, opposition coalition members on Friday distanced themselves from the proposal to form a broad-based government, calling it a “betrayal of the Kenyan people, particularly Gen Zs and millennials,” who have been leading the protests calling for change.

Main opposition leader, Raila Odinga, was not present during the opposition coalition media briefing.

Last week, Ruto dismissed all but one minister and said he would form a broad-based government that would help him address issues that led to month long protests.

The protests started as calls for legislators to vote against a finance bill that was proposing new taxes and later morphed to calls for the president’s resignation over bad governance.

The president on Friday retained the former ministers in interior and defense, but he had yet to appoint a finance minister, under whose area of responsibility the contentious budget falls.

The country’s public debt had been increasing and Ruto defended the proposed taxes as a way to repay debt and increase internal revenue collection.

Demonstrators had been calling for a fresh start accusing the former ministers of incompetence, corruption and displays of opulence amid the high cost of living.

At least 50 people had died since the protests started and more than 400 others have been injured, according to data from the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights.

A court on Thursday suspended a ban by police on protests in the capital, Nairobi.

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