President William Ruto has made fresh appointments to government, bringing back some of his allies who were perceived to be in the cold following the recent Cabinet reshuffling.
Head of Public Service and Chief of Staff Felix Koskei, in a statement released on Friday evening, said the new appointments will aid in supporting the Kenya Kwanza administration’s Bottom Up Economic Agenda (BETA)
Eliud Owalo deputy chief of staff
President William Ruto has appointed former ICT CS Eliud Owalo as the Deputy Chief of Staff, Performance and Delivery Management.
Owalo will be responsible for the effective and efficient implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of priority projects and initiatives of the 5th administration in line with the BETA Plan.
He will oversee the performance of Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies in service delivery.
The communication was made by the head of the Public Service Commission, Felix Koskei.
Owalo was appointed by Ruto in 2022 to serve in the Ministry as CS for Information, Communication, and Digital Economy.
He was fired from office on July 7 after the President dissolved his Cabinet, sending home all CSs save the Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi.
When he exited the ICT ministry, Owalo highlighted several major digital and strategic achievements accomplished during his tenure.
Owalo expressed self-confidence following his appraisal of his time at the helm of the ministry.
“The ministry exit scoreboard,” he posted on his X platform.
He listed 14 achievements made under his leadership.
In the post, Owalo claimed that the ministry was ranked as being the least corrupt.
“Under my leadership, Ministry of Information, Communications, and The Digital Economy (MoICDE) was declared by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) as the least corrupt government ministry,” he said.
The former minister said that more than 17,668 government services were digitalised within one and a half years against the ministry’s target of 5,000 in five years.
He unveiled that he successfully distributed 16,804 digital devices to his established 274 digital hubs and trained 516,505 youth to create job opportunities in every ward in the country.
Overall, he said he successfully created 152,711 digital jobs during his tenure in government.
The ex-ICT CS boasted 1,360 WiFi hotspots established across all 47 counties.
He noted that under his leadership in the docket, there was a local assembly of 1.5 million smart-enabled phones.
“The phones retail from Sh7,500 per unit and are available at Safaricom and Jamii Telkom outlets, with 579,000 units already sold,” he said.
Owalo said that he established the Open University of Kenya in October 2023 to facilitate virtual learning and universal access to education, with 3,289 students admitted to the university at Konza Technopolis.
Under his leadership, 10,219 kilometres of fibre-optic cable were rolled out, and the model was restructured to utilise Kenya Power’s (KPLC) electric transmission lines instead of digging underground trenches.
“This should enable us to terminate fibre at each of the 74,000 KPLC transformers and eventually at every metre in the long run,” Owalo said.
Owalo disclosed that he commenced the re-engineering of the Postal Corporation of Kenya into an e-commerce and logistics hub.
Additionally, he made public his facilitation of 1,018 audio-visual productions under the KBC studio mashinani programme.
Owalo said he brought on board over 94 ICT providers, innovators, and private partners to co-create innovative solutions through the Konza cloud.
Dennis Itumbi appointed Head of Creative Economy and Special Projects
President William Ruto has appointed Digital Strategist Denis Itumbi as Head of Creative Economy and Special Projects in the Office of the President.
Ruto appointed Itumbi after the approval of the Public Service Commission.
“This appointment will go into fostering this administration’s zeal for innovation and growth towards a robust yet novel sector in the economic sphere,” a statement read in part
Moses Kuria senior economic adviser
President William Ruto has appointed former Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria as a senior adviser in the Council of Economic Advisors.
Chief of Staff and Head of Public Service Felix Koskei, said the appointment seeks to bolster the implementation of the Bottom-Up Economic Agenda plan by the broad-based government.
News of the appointment came hours after Kuria thanked Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua for wishing him well, even as he moves on to other things.
“To my brother DP Rigathi Gachagua. Thank you for your kind words. Indeed God has His own designs. I am a believer. I strongly trust that He will make me the current Mt Kenya kingpin and the 6th President of the Republic of Kenya. Asante Ndugu,” he said on X.
Speaking in Githunguri on Wednesday, Gachagua said Kuria should relax, insisting that no door closes, without another opening.
He noted that the former CS is still young and that God will provide new opportunities.
“My brother Moses Kuria, relax. Hakuna mlango wanafunga bila kufungua ingine (No door closes without another opening). We wish you well,” the DP said.
Gachagua and Kuria had attended the funeral of two relatives of Kiambu senator Karungo Thangwa.
They both called for the unity of the Mt Kenya region, for the sake of development.
Kuria is among the Cabinet Secretaries in President William Ruto’s first Cabinet.
He did not get reappointed after Ruto reconstituted his Cabinet.
The President dismissed his entire cabinet on July 11, 2024.
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