How Kenya agriculture minister cultivated his political woes

Kenya’s Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mithika Linturi was one of the controversial inclusions in President William Ruto’s first Cabinet announced on September 27, 2022.

A former MP and senator who had lost his bid to be a county governor in the August 2022 elections, he was one of two Cabinet nominees then battling criminal charges.

Nonetheless, the nominees, including those with court cases and other integrity questions hanging over their heads, passed parliamentary vetting and were approved for appointment by a National Assembly where the ruling Kenya Kwanza coalition enjoys a wide majority.

MPs cited a clause in Kenya’s leadership and integrity law that provides that persons being prosecuted for alleged crimes can only be barred from holding public office upon conviction.

They also advanced the pre-election narrative popularised by then Deputy President Ruto that investigative and prosecution agencies targeted a number of his allies for political reasons.

Linturi’s path to the Cabinet was further paved with the collapse of his court case after the woman who had accused him of attempted rape in a hotel room withdrew her complaint.

But for one of Kenya’s most controversial politicians, trouble is never quite far away.

On Thursday, the National Assembly approved an impeachment motion against him over the fake fertiliser scandal in which the Agriculture minister and top officials of the State-owned National Cereals and Produce Board have been implicated.

The minister’s fate, for now, lies in the hands of a select committee of MPs to be formed to conduct impeachment hearings. If MPs were to confirm allegations against him, Linturi would become the first minister to be fired by President Ruto.

But then again, if there is anyone familiar with the dark lobbying corners of Parliament and with the political skills to wriggle his way out of tight situations like the one Linturi currently finds himself in, it is the man himself.

As an MP in 2014, he brought a similar impeachment motion against a minister in the previous administration of Uhuru Kenyatta. Come the day of the vote, however, he was a no-show.

Some details of how that impeachment bid collapsed were revealed in a dramatic property eviction case pitting him against his estranged lover, including allegations that he was in a hotel in Naivasha while his colleagues waited for him to table the impeachment motion.

An ignominious exit from the Cabinet would perhaps leave him feeling somewhat unlucky given the manner some of his colleagues have got away with similar scandals in their ministries.