"Kenyans are mostly unaware that ministers have little control over the workings of their ministries and are small cogs in the general running of the government which is dominated by State House officials, including of course Cabinet Secretary Francis Muthaura, who direct senior ministry officials to carry out functions and policies without reference to their ministers. There are exceptions — some favoured ministers are free to run their outfits as they deem fit."
…says Raila Odinga, MP for Langata, in his call for snap polls in today’s Standard. // As a direct analogy to this – since Raila also made a comparison to Germany in his open comment – this also reminds me of Germany’s Oskar Lafontaine and Gregor Gysi: German socialistic politicians that glow with brilliant rhetoric but have a completely different appearance once they are given certain positions in the government. That is, these guys excel in their opposition role and are much more useful for a democratic process by adding their constructive criticism from that position. Sijui about Raila, though…
Update: reactions on Raila’s commentary here, here and here.
