Experts dominate Uhuru’s new list of Cabinet nominees

By GEOFFREY IRUNGU, Posted  Thursday, April 25   2013 at  22:28

IN SUMMARY

• Nearly all the 12 nominees have postgraduate qualifications, have worked in private and public sector or held senior positions with international organisations. 
• Charity Ngilu and Najib Balala are the only political figures named among the 12 cabinet nominees released Thursday.

Experts dominated President Uhuru Kenyatta’s list of 12 more Cabinet nominees released Thursday, signalling his quest to efficiently manage public resources to speed up growth.   

The list, released after hours of waiting, was largely made up of senior corporate executives, investment bankers, economists, lawyers, engineers, policy experts and academics.

Nearly all the 12 nominees have postgraduate qualifications, have worked in private and public sector or held senior positions with international organisations. 

Of the 16 nominees, including the four named on Tuesday, business leaders took three positions opening a window for the injection of private sector practices into government.

The list includes Barclays Bank of Africa head Adan Mohamed, Managing Director of NIC BankJames Macharia, and Jepkoskei Kandie, an investment banker with Standard Investment Bank.

Mr Kenyatta also included on his team highly qualified public sector professionals whose role it must be to anchor the team in the business of government and offer continuity.

That list includes Henry Rotich, a long serving Treasury mandarin, Michael Kamau, who served as the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Roads in the Kibaki government, Anne Waiguru, another Treasury insider, Jacob Kaimenyi, University of Nairobi academic, Davis Chirchir, a former electoral commission official, and Hassan Wario from the National Museums of Kenya.

International experience was also a major factor in the nomination of at least three candidates. Amina Mohammed, the nominee for Foreign Affairs, Raychelle Omamo, the Defence secretary-designate, Judi Wakhungu and Fred Matiang’i bring a wealth of international experience to the Cabinet having served as diplomats or occupied senior roles in international organisations.

The inclusion of Charity Ngilu and Najib Balala came as a surprise to many who had ruled them out following Deputy President William Ruto’s statement on Wednesday that only he and the President would be politicians in the Cabinet.

Mr Kenyatta said the two – largely seen as having been rewarded for their roles in in the Jubilee campaigns – would not dabble in politics but would work alongside their counterparts as professional members of the executive.

Mr Macharia has been tapped to head the Ministry of Health, Mr Mohamed is tipped to become Industrialisation and Enterprise secretary while Mrs Kandie is designated to be the Cabinet Secretary for East African Affairs, Commerce and Tourism.

The choice of Mr Macharia to oversee health mattes, has already come under criticism from doctors but his supporters say his management skills are what is needed to turn around in the ailing sector.

Prof Wakhungu, who is seeking parliamentary approval to become the Cabinet Secretary for Natural Resources and Water, is an energy expert while Anne Waiguru is an economist who has held senior positions at the Treasury and has featured in Business Daily’s Top 40 under 40 list.

Ms Waiguru, has however had a bumpy ride at the Treasury, declining to sit through a scheduled Business Daily interview on her work at the Governance Unit in 2008, citing instructions from higher authority not to open up on the subject. The interview had hardly begun in her eight floor office when she was called by a Treasury mandarin and ordered to stop the interview.

The appointment of Prof Kaimenyi to the Education docket is seen as critical to the achievement of Jubilee’s promise to raise education spending to 32 per cent of the total budget – the achievement of which the new cabinet secretary is expected oversee.

Private sector professionals said they believed the team would achieve the government’s goals.

“My first reaction to this cabinet is that it is exciting. We know what it is capable and has people who have achieved things. There has been too much pessimism, lack of ambition, lack of thinking big, aggressiveness, ambition. This team has what it takes to achieve promises that have been made,” said John Ngumi, the director of Investment Banking Coverage, Corporate & Investment Banking Division, Standard Bank Africa.

girungu@ke.nationmedia.com