NAIROBI, Kenya – In a budget day first, National Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi made a striking entrance to Parliament on Thursday, June 12—not in a government convoy, but on foot.
Flanked by Principal Secretary Chris Kiptoo, Mbadi walked the roughly 100-metre stretch from Treasury to Parliament buildings, turning a routine handover of numbers into a symbolic moment of simplicity and quiet confidence.
The duo’s purposeful stride down Nairobi’s political catwalk didn’t just break with decades of tradition—it rewrote the optics of fiscal leadership.
Both men were dressed in matching navy blue suits, crisply tailored and paired with white shirts and patterned blue ties.
A red flower pinned neatly to each of their lapels added a ceremonial pop of color—a sartorial nod to the gravity of the day.
And in Mbadi’s right hand: the iconic black budget briefcase, stamped with the Kenya coat of arms and the word Harambee, as tradition demands.
The briefcase carries the budget statement and echoes a global ritual that traces back to Britain’s William Gladstone in 1860. But on this day in Nairobi, it wasn’t just the briefcase that turned heads—it was the walk.
The image—a budget chief and his PS walking side by side—immediately stood out in a country where power often arrives surrounded by sirens and SUVs.
