A sense of purpose and focus attends President Uhuru Kenyatta’s conduct of business nowadays.
His legacy at the fore of his mind, he is effecting a firmer grip on institutions that he believes let him down in his first term.
He has told his party’s MPs and Cabinet ministers and nominees that it will not be business as usual.
He will be ruthless with those he has given jobs who won’t deliver.
Friend and foe are confounded at how discreet the President has become lately, sometimes doing the exact opposite of what they expect.
He keeps things under wraps. For example, only a handful of his aides knew when he would announce his Cabinet, and fewer who would feature on it.
He scribbled on paper and departed from the script to insert the names of the first six he named in an impromptu address at State House.
Yesterday the Star established that the changes he has made since he began his second term target to ensure that “people pay for breaking the law”.
Top on the President’s list is the fight against corruption, which he has voiced his frustrations about during his first term of office.
The targets are unclear but sources say he has made this his Presidency.
Insiders say he is keen on ensuring that there is better coordination of all institutions key to fighting corruption.
“If you listened to the President during his Inauguration speech, he clearly stated that there are no grey areas in entrenching the rule of law. Expect nothing less from him and he is expecting nothing less from all Kenyans, and especially the institutions mandated to implement the Constitution,” a key Jubilee insider said.
He added that the President is likely to catch many by surprise because he has made his circle closer and tighter. His actions are shocking even those around him.
“He has now surrounded himself with people who he had long worked with, and the direction of the appointments is clear that he wants a complete change of thinking and execution. More changes are coming,” another Jubilee insider added.
Uhuru plucked a key ally and long-time aide, Solicitor General Njee Muturi from the powerful State Law Office, where he was the accounting officer, and appointed him the Deputy Chief of Staff.
The move has widely been seen as a demotion, but it brings him nearer the President to superintend over the implementation of the Big Four plan under the Presidential Delivery Unit.
Njee, a longtime PA, is the man the President deploys on sensitive missions. He was closely involved in the ICC cases, and was the face of the controversial payment of Sh1.4 billion for the aborted Anglo Leasing contracts.
The contract, which the Kenya government said it was bound to pay because it had gone into international arbitration, was roundly condemned as a fraudulent and undeserving use of the public purse by the Treasury.
Even at the State Law Office, Njee was intensely involved in the President’s matters as a core member of his team of legal and political fixers. He has just brought him closer.
Significant, too, is the appointment of former Nakuru Governor Kinuthia Mbugua as the Comptroller of State Houses.
The former paramilitary policeman has brought a sense of discipline and eeriness in the corridors of State House as custodian of the President’s diary.
Experienced former appellate judge Paul Kihara and lawyer Kennedy Ogetto are expected to bring discipline, professionalism, strategic thinking and coordination to the government’s response to legal issues.
Uhuru is banking on Kihara to reverse the streak of losses the government has suffered in the courts that have seen many key decisions overturned or declared unconstitutional.
