Bite the bullet: Let him go.

There is a cadre of civil servants moulded in the colonial vision of a benevolent State ruling its subjects with stringent rules and harsh penalties. They refuse to admit that post-promulgation, Kenya's constitutional order does not and should not rely on the image of the Big Man commanding his people to do one thing or the other. The key to understanding the new constitutional order is to understand that while the former constitutional regime was predicated on the word of the "leader" being final, in the new order, "legitimacy" is what guarantees civil order.

The first quarter of 2014 has been brutal. Not a month has passed without multiple reports of grenade attacks or bombings, the murder of police and civilian alike has become commonplace. In the past week alone, more than 90 Kenyans have been killed though, surprisingly, the majority were killed after drinking "illicit" alcohol. When bombs were going off, the Cabinet Secretary for the Interior and Co-ordination of National Government did nothing more than to promise ever harsher application of the laws of Kenya while calling for the co-operation of the people to identify the fifth columnists among us. But when "illicit" alcohol killed dozens, he was swift in firing public officers.

Perhaps the President and Deputy President appreciate that their administration succeeds if it is considered legitimate; their Cabinet is yet to do so. Cabinet Secretary Lenku is a millstone around the neck of the Jubilee administration. Kenyans were willing to give him the benefit of the doubt when he was appointed to the Interior ministry. There were misgivings that his stint in the hospitality industry ill-equipped him to oversee the most serious attempt at reforming internal security while at the same time implementing policies designed to keep Kenyans safe from the ballooning terror problem. With the siege of the Westgate, Mr Ole Lenku's credibility was shot. it has never recovered. Uhuru Kenyatta's administration risks losing legitimacy because of the perceived ineptitude of Mr Ole Lenku.

It has been a year. The police reforms initiated in the dying months of the Kibaki government have all but stalled. The reputation of the National Police remains sullied by the corruption allegations that never seem to die down. Public confidence in the government to keep them safe from rogue matatu crews, al Shabaab terrorists or gun-toting robbers has hit the rocks. The people can either blame the Cabinet Secretary or the Commander-in-Chief. For now, Kenyans' unbridled hostility is directed at the men at the top of the internal security firmament: the Cabinet Secretary, his Principal Secretary, the Inspector-General, the Director of Criminal Investigations and the Director-General of the National Intelligence Service.

Since Westgate, there have only been minor rumbles about the removal of the Cabinet Secretary and the Inspector-General from their offices. If the Cabinet secretary keeps making the same mistakes that led to the deaths of Kenyans over and over again, the calls for his resignation or dismissal will only grow louder. Confidence in his abilities has evaporated; the goodwill he enjoyed is gone. The Commander-in-Chief must surely know that it is time to find someone with the ruthlessness and intelligence to get the interior docket on the proper war footing. If the C-in-C is not careful, Mr Ole Lenku will be the reason his government loses legitimacy and credibility.