Jubilee Secretary General Raphael Tuju has finally explained why Members of Parliament could not vet him for the Cabinet Secretary job handed to him by President Uhuru Kenyatta.

In an interview with the Nation, Mr. Tuju, who is a CS without a portfolio mentioned that he could not undergo the vetting process because he does not occupy a specific Ministry.

“That I do not have a portfolio means I cannot be vetted by Parliament, because, what will they ask? What expertise do I need to run which ministry? I didn’t need that, because you cannot ask me what I will do in such and such a ministry,” Tuju was quoted by the local daily.

Tuju's Role as CS

According to the former Rarieda MP, his role would involve being a political voice in the Cabinet and comment on such issues on behalf of the other Ministers who have a docket.

“When an issue that should be in the domain of one CS is made political, then it lands right on my desk. It is my role to make the political comments without anybody accusing those particular CSs of engaging in politics,” he said.

Section 15 (1) (c) of the Electoral Offences Act prohibits public officers from engaging in political campaigns and any political activity that would compromise the political neutrality of his/her office.

He added that he was appointed to the position to ensure that the CSs were fulfilling what President Uhuru Kenyatta’s led party promised Kenyans during the campaign.

“I sit in the Cabinet to represent the interests of the President’s party. We went around the country promising certain things that we will do, and my role is to ensure that I give whatever assistance to ensure that we are on focus as far as those issues are concerned,” he said.

Tuju added: “On an issue that they are maybe blind sighted to, my job is to point out that this is not sitting very well, based on the manifesto that we had. We have not reached that point yet, but when we do, I’ll exercise a lot of humility, and courtesy.”