Former Information Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru has branded this Christmas the most peaceful he has had in the recent past.
He said the beauty of it all is that he can now “sleep when I feel like, wake up when I want to, eat when hungry and walk or ride around with no worries”.
Mr Mucheru said he would maintain this lifestyle until the New Year when he will start exploring what to do now that he is out of government.
“In government, I used to be in hotels… sleeping away from my family, my good pets… eating food you have no idea who cooked,” he told Royal Media Services’ platforms in a live interview on Saturday night.
He said Kenyans who support the Kenya Kwanza government “have this tendency of taunting those who worked in President Uhuru’ Kenyatta’s government.”
He said he will never understand “why they keep on celebrating and making it a big issue that they sent us home”.
Mr Mucheru asked: “Who does not love going home? What is the big deal about someone going to his or her home? Why would one think that going home is a bad thing?”
He added: “We went home, yes, many of us, and yet I am yet to receive a single distress phone call from any of my former workmates.”
“Like, recently, we attended Dr Fred Matiang’i’s son’s wedding in Naivasha and, together with many of our former Cabinet Secretaries and other senior guys, we audited ourselves and the verdict is that so far so good…we are doing just fine,” he said
“Even the former president is doing fine. We have accepted that we are out of government, we know there is a government in place.”
Mr Mucheru, who was in the line of fire during the divisive campaigns leading to the controversial August 9 General Election, insisted that “we, especially I, feel fine.”
Mr Mucheru had, in conjunction with former Interior PS Mr Karanja Kibicho, insisted in the campaigns that Mr Raila Odinga would take a 60 per cent of the votes.
The final tally had Dr William Ruto win with 50.6 per cent as Mr Odinga gpt 48 per cent.
To that, he said he had no regrets “since there is no law that barred me from supporting that cause. It was my best wish for Kenya and Kenyans, only that a majority saw it otherwise.”
He said while he respects and appreciates the Ruto presidency, ” but time will tell on why I had seen it differently, Why even Uhuru and some of my colleagues saw it differently.”
Mr Mucheru added, “I feel happy that I am now rediscovering the Mucheru outside government, the real Mucheru who can now flaunt a white hair and the same coloured beard, no smart cuts, just me.”
He said he can now rest easy as he enjoys uninterrupted time with family and walking around with no “huge burden of responsibilities associated with the Cabinet job”.
“I used to feel uncomfortable with the officialdom around my life where armed men accompanied me everywhere as guards and even listened to my phone calls”.
He said he would only lose them briefly while at home since he could make calls in the privacy of his bedroom.
He revealed how it was like when President Ruto called them to a full Cabinet meeting once he was sworn in as the fifth Head of State.
“We were all nervous. We were confused. Here was the man we had fought and it did not work. We waited for his entry with bated breath,” he said.
Then the President walked in smiling, “shaking every hand by calling us by name. He told us that he had no bad feelings for any of us. He told us he understood it was all a game of politics and he wished all of us to move on and forget the bad moments.”
Mr Mucheru said: “Sorry to those I disappointed. My flag did not give me sweeping powers. I helped some, others I couldn’t and I hope you understand.”
