God is giving Ruto time to reset; Mutahi Ngunyi on Earth tremor

Political analyst Mutahi Ngunyi now says Tuesday’s earth tremor was a sign for President William Ruto to implement massive reforms in his adminstration.

Following the tremor, Ngunyi said God is giving Ruto a chance to reset his government.

“The foundations of our nation have been shaken. In posh Kikuyu areas. I felt the tremor in Gigiri. The 4.2 earthquake is a sign,” he said.

“God is giving Ruto a chance to reset. From the foundation up! This is symbolic.”

The comment comes at a time when pressure is pilling on President William Ruto to implement massive reforms in his administration.

Thousands of youths have lately taken to the streets to protest over what they said is ‘demanding accountability and integrity’ among its leaders.

This comes days after President William Ruto dissolved his Cabinet, leaving only Prime Cabinet Secretary and Foreign Affairs CS Musalia Mudavadi.

The office of the Deputy President was not affected.

Ruto stated that he will engage in extensive consultations across different sectors and political formations and other Kenyans at large.

The Head of State said this is to set up a broad base government that will assist him in accelerating the necessary, urgent and irreversible implementation of the programme that the state has.

This includes dealing with the burden of debt, raising domestic resources, expanding job opportunities, eliminating wastage and unnecessary duplication of a multiplicity of government agencies and ending of corruption.

This, Ruto said, will consequently make the government lean, inexpensive, effective and efficient

“During this process, the operations of government will continue uninterrupted under the guidance of Principal Secretaries and other relevant officials,” he added.

The President also introduced austerity measures which claimed the existence of 47 state corporations.

Speaking during the State of the Nation address, President Ruto said the parastatals with overlapping mandates will cease to exist immediately.

“The 47 state corporations with overlapping will be dissolved and their mandate transferred to ministries and state agencies,” Ruto said.

The earth tremor referred to by Ngunyi occurred at around 8:34 pm on Tuesday and lasted for about 30 seconds.

Earthquake Monitor in a statement said the country experienced a strong magnitude 4.6 earthquake that hit 87 km (54 mi) away from Nairobi at 8:32 pm.

They said the quake had a very shallow depth of 10 km (6 mi) and was felt widely in the area.

“The shallow depth of the quake caused it to be felt more strongly near the epicentre than a deeper quake of similar magnitude would,” the statement read.

“We are receiving unverified early reports of ground shaking possibly caused by seismic activity in or near Nairobi, Nairobi Area, Kenya on 16 Jul 2024 (GMT) at approximately 17:31 GMT,” Earthquake Monitor said in a statement.