Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary (CS) Alfred Mutua on Thursday, March 2, issued a Note Verbale ceding some of the traditional roles of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua.
The CS posted the communique on his social media saying “As CS for Foreign and Diaspora affairs, I have been bothered by many pending MOUs & lost opportunities due to traditional & mostly elitist based bureaucracy. After talks with the diplomatic community, I have issued the following notice for Chap Chap interactions. Mbele iko Sawa.”
According to the Note Verbale, foreign agencies will now bypass his office and directly engage Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs). He also said the Deputy President’s office will handle direct engagements between the organisations involving more than one ministry. He said the Deputy President will gate-keep direct engagements between international organisations and missions and government.
“Requests of meetings of cross-cutting nature and that involve more than one Ministry, it is advised that such requests should be made through the Office of the Deputy President for the coordination purposes,” read the Note Verbale.
Commenting on the issue, Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Dr. Korir Sing’Oei said “We shall, in the next few days, issue an explanatory note to relevant actors on implementing this ministerial directive consistently with the VCDR, Kenya Constitution, Foreign Service Act & the Executive Order of Jan 2023.”
