President William Ruto has defended his decision to fire former Public Service Cabinet Secretary Justin Muturi.
Speaking on Monday, March 31, Ruto said that Muturi struggled to perform even when he served as the Attorney General.
The President noted that Muturi had informed him that he wouldn’t be able to deliver in the role since he had not practiced law for a long time, but he persuaded him to take the task.
"I appointed Mr. Muturi as the Attorney General. He himself told me that the job was challenging for him because he had not been practicing for a long time. He had moved from being a magistrate to an MP, and then he became Speaker.
“He admitted that the job was somewhat overwhelming for him. I observed for a while and realized that he was indeed struggling with the role. Maybe the mistake was mine because I persuaded him to take the job,” said Ruto.
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The Head of State went on to say that he reassigned Muturi to the Public Service docket, but in the process, Muturi dismissed himself after he started skipping Cabinet meetings.
“I gave Muturi a second chance, but in the process, he dismissed himself. What did you expect me to do? It's not the end of the road, Muturi has a very good pension as a former Speaker, he will not suffer much,” Ruto added.
The President sacked Muturi on Wednesday, March 26, and nominated Mbeere North MP Geoffrey Ruku as the new CS for Public Service.
Before being fired, Muturi had taken issue with the abductions and extrajudicial killings in the country and wanted the President to take more action to resolve the issue.
The former Public Service CS, in a recent interview, said he wrote to the President asking to be excused from Cabinet meetings until the issue of abductions and extrajudicial killings is tabled in the top government decision-making organ.
