NAIROBI, Kenya — President William Ruto has named his first 11 Cabinet secretaries, retaining six former ministers in charge of the crucial defence and interior ministries.
The head of state sacked all but one Cabinet secretary last week, announcing that he would form a broad-based government to assist him in addressing the issues that sparked a month-long protest movement that eventually turned into calls for the president’s resignation due to poor leadership.
The president retained Adan Duale (Defence), Kithure Kindiki (Interior), Alice Wahome (Lands, Public Works, Housing and Urban Development), and Soipan Tuya (Environment, Climate Change, and Forestry).
Others include Davis Chirchir, who previously held the Energy docket but has now been moved to the Ministry of Roads and Transport, and ex-Investment, Trade, and Industry CS Rebecca Miano, who has been nominated the new Attorney General.
However, President Ruto still hasn’t appointed a Treasury Cabinet secretary whose department oversees the controversial budget.
Y News looks at the new faces that President Ruto has introduced to his Cabinet, whom he hopes will help him achieve the Kenya Kwanza manifesto, dubbed “The Plan,” for Kenyans.
1. Julius Migos Ogamba
The Education Cabinet secretary nominee is a passionate, visionary and accomplished legal professional with over 25 years of experience in legal practice, counselling clients, performing legal research, preparing legal documents and representing clients in criminal and civil court proceedings.
Driven and detail-oriented Senior Advocate with a proven track record of leading teams, forging long-lasting client relationships and influencing organizational productivity by ensuring compliance with legal and regulatory requirements.
Ogamba, who takes over from Ezekiel Machogu, holds a postgraduate diploma in Law from the Kenya School of Law and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Nairobi.
He is also a senior partner at Migos- Ogamba & Waudo Advocates and chairman of Kenya Electricity Generating Company.
2. Debra Mlongo Barasa
The Health CS nominee is a medical doctor specialising in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases with over 15 years of experience.
She has over 15 years of field experience as a senior medical officer, progressing to an Internal medicine physician and technical advisor, having worked in health institutions, both national, referral, private, and Community-Based Organisations.
Mlongo is credited for having co-led the infectious disease pillar addressing outbreak-prone infections such as Respiratory infections (COVID-19, diphtheria), viral haemorrhagic fevers (Ebola, SVD), and contagious diarrhoea (cholera), among others. She holds a Master of Medicine Internal Medicine from the University of Nairobi, an MSC in Infectious Diseases from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine [Ongoing] and a a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery from the University of Nairobi.
Mlongo has served as an Internal Medicine Consultant Physician, Infectious Diseases Consultant at the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Internal Medicine Physician at Mater Hospital.
3. Muuga Murithi Eric
The new Water, Sanitation, and Irrigation Cabinet nominee is a Civil Engineer and a water resource enthusiast with over 8 years of hands-on experience in Operations and Management of Engineering Projects, Water Hydraulic Modeling, Design of Water and Wastewater Networks, Water Treatment Plants, and other water structures.
He holds an MSC degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Nairobi.
Muuga also holds a BSC degree in Civil and Construction Engineering [FIRST CLASS HONOURS] from the same institution.
The 32-year-old has served as an Assistant Project Engineer at the Water and Sanitation Development Project (WSDP). Muuga has also served as an Assistant Project Engineer at KIMAWASCO.
In addition, he served as a Design Engineer at the Kenya Towns Sustainable Water and Supply Sanitation Program.
4. Andrew Mwihia Karanja
The Agriculture and Livestock Development CS nominee has over 36 years of experience in the public sector, locally and internationally, in development economics, rural development and finance, agriculture and livestock development, and project formulation, management, and evaluation.
He started his career as an extension officer at the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development.
He also worked as a Planning Officer in the same ministry. Later, he joined the Coffee Research Foundation (CRF) as a Research Officer/Agricultural Economist, where he rose to Senior Agricultural Economist and Head of the Economics Department. Dr. Karanja joined the World Bank in 2003 as an Agricultural Economist.
He holds a PhD Development Economics and Policy from Wageningen University, Netherlands.
Karanja also holds an MSC in agriculture from the University of Nairobi and a BSC in Agriculture from the same university.
He has served as a lead economist and consultant for assessing public financing for Farner-led irrigation at the State Department of Livestock.
Karanja also served as a Senior Agricultural Economist and Task Team Leader at the World Bank in Nairobi and is a Research Fellow at Egerton University, Tegemeo Institute.
5. Margaret Nyambura Ndung’u
Ndung’u, the Information, Communication and Digital Economy CS nominee, is a renowned Internet Governance expert.
Her expertise includes Internet infrastructure, AI, Machine Learning, cybersecurity, and data governance.
She contributed to the African Union’s Digital Transformation Strategy and sectoral Education, Health, and Agriculture strategies.
Ndung’u also played a crucial role in developing and implementing the African Union Data Policy Framework.
She coordinated a six-module online Internet Governance curriculum used by 30 National and Regional Schools across Africa and developed a 10-module course for the Pan African University Institute, tailoring it to participants’ e-skills.
She holds a Post-Doctoral Fellowship (Focused on Innovation Value Chain) from Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, South Africa, PhD – Information Systems from the University of Nairobi, and an MBA in management Science from the same institution.
Ndung’u also holds B.SC. – Information Science from Moi University.
She has previously served as Senior Research Manager at the Global Digital Inclusion Partnership and co-investigator of the cybersecurity Mentorship Kit at Gender Justice in STEM Research in Africa (GEJUSTA).
Her previous roles included senior regulatory and Internet governance expert, seconded to the African Union Commission in an EU-funded project, and consultant at the ICT Authority/ Ministry of Education.
