Kinyua set to resign – Weekly Citizen

The head of Public Service Joseph Kinyua is contemplating to resign something that has sparked intense lobbying for the coveted seat.
According to sources, Kinyua wants to retire at the end of the year and concentrate on other issues since he is approaching 70 years.
Kinyua reportedly prefers retiring due to his failing health and advanced age but it is not known whether Uhuru Kenyatta has decided to let the 68-year-old go.
Other presidents before Uhuru seem to have faced similar problems of clinging on to the same old and tested technocrats who understood the mechanism of government.

Kinyua head of public service

Kinyua, Kenya’s oldest civil servant, was appointed when Uhuru ascended to power in 2013 to a low reception despite few doubting the career economist’s performance as permanent secretary at the National Treasury.
His close rapport with Uhuru started when Uhuru was Finance minister in the Mwai Kibaki administration.
The head of the Public Service is not only answerable to the president but also runs the cabinet office which communicates executive decisions besides supervising and coordinating ministries and departments.
Kinyua has served the government for three decades in senior positions that include overseeing major policy decisions, besides stints with the Central Bank of Kenya, the International Monetary Fund and several ministries, including PS at Treasury.
In State House circles, Kinyua is regarded as the elder in the room and with a fairly young team at the presidency, his firm, but decisive calmness makes him a key influencer in shaping statecraft besides being a key driver of Uhuru’s so-called Big Four Agenda.
According to insiders, there is a quiet but vicious jostling and lobbying for Kinyua’s job where former Nairobi provincial commissioner Njoroge Ndirangu, Interior principal secretary Karanja Kibicho, Energy PS Joseph Njoroge, deputy Public Service head Wanyama Musiambo, State House chief of staff Nzioka Waita and deputy chief of staff Njee Muturi are all angling to take the seat.
Other names include that of Interior cabinet secretary Fred Matiang’i and secretary Internal Security Amos Gatheca.
Insiders aver that the jostling has split Uhuru’s kitchen cabinet into various factions, with each rooting for a man from their county.
Top on the list is Ndirangu, who is being backed by elite from Nyeri to ensure the seat remains in the county.
Ndirangu, who hails from Nyeri, served as Kisii Central district commissioner before he was posted to Nairobi, has the backing of Uhuru’s most trusted advisers.
Two of the president most trusted advisers, National Intelligence Service director general, Philip Kamweru and former presidential adviser, Nancy Gitau, also hail from Nyeri county and are said to be pushing for their fellow county man to be appointed to the post.
In changes made by the president in 2016, Ndirangu was redeployed to Harambee House where he is currently based, a move many interpreted as a demotion.
The president, according to sources, is keen to appoint a Kikuyu to the position to contain a growing rebellion in his hometurf against his administration over alleged neglect.

President Uhuru and Kinyua

Insiders say a clique of Nyeri leaders who include Kamweru, Gitau, and former Kenya Defence Forces chief Julius Karangi together with top politicians from the region, have been holding meetings at Windsor Hotel to strategise on how to ensure the seat remains in the county.
It is this group that is prevailing upon the president to appoint Ndirangu.
Insiders add that Kiambu elite are pushing for the appointment of Njoroge.
Those backing Njoroge include Uhuru’s uncle, George Muhoho, the president’s younger brother, Muhoho and nephew, Jomo Gecaga.
Those pushing for Njoroge argue that apart from Uhuru, Kiambu does not have other serious government appointments and that is one of the reasons there is a growing rebellion against the president in his backyard.
They are telling the president that most of the residents support William Ruto and the only way to contain the tide is to appoint Njoroge to replace Kinyua.
Njoroge is among highflying PSs who have not been entangled in the web of corruption threatening to bring down the Uhuru administration.
In case Uhuru does not pick Njoroge, the Kiambu elite are pushing for Gatheca, the little known former Nakuru county commissioner.
As Internal Security secretary, Gatheca is answerable to Matiang’i but those in the know say he has Uhuru’s hotline.
In the changes that Uhuru made in January 2016, Gathecha was fished from Nakuru where he served as county commissioner and appointed security and operations secretary at Harambee House.
He hails from Kabete constituency in Kiambu county. He is close to the Kenyatta family.
Uhuru’s advisers outside the Kikuyu community, who include Raila Odinga, are pushing for Matiang’i to be appointed to the coveted position.
Outspoken, a bulldozer and bold, Matiang’i has been put at the heart of the executive following the president’s radical reorganisation of his administration and establishment of a four-tier hierarchy of authority.
His elevation with supervisory roles across government has whittled down Ruto’s influence with many Kenyans now calling him super minister, chief minister or even prime minister.

CS Matiangi

According to sources, the Raila group prefers Matiang’i, arguing his appointment will go a long way in ensuring inclusivity, a key agenda of the March 9 2018 handshake between the head of state and his former foe.
Muturi, the former Solicitor General who was Uhuru’s aide before he became Kanu flag bearer in the 2002 presidential elections, is using his closeness to the president to lobby for the job. However, the president is said not to be keen to appoint him, given his disastrous performance as Solicitor General. He also has the tendency of hitting the bottle too hard.
Insiders add that though Musiambo would be an automatic replacement, trust and political considerations hold more water than career progression and hence he might be locked out.
The deputy head of Public Service has had a sterling performance that saw Uhuru appoint him to coordinate a multi-agency taskforce to combat illicit trade in May 2018.
Musiambo is a results-oriented servant who takes no prisoners throughout his public service career as demonstrated when he served as district officer where he led a successful operation to recover illegal guns from bandits during his tenure as Rift Valley Regional Coordinator.
The no-nonsense and diligent administrator also led a sweeping war on illicit and counterfeit trade, a move felt across all corners of the country.
He oversaw the dramatic seizure of illicit goods worth over Sh8.5 billion mainly in Nairobi and Mombasa counties which included sugar worth over Sh5 billion, some of which was reported to contain excessive levels of mercury.
He is also a serious contender for the post.

Nzioka Waita

For Waita, his appointment as Chief of Staff and head of the Presidential Delivery Unit was widely interpreted as a vote of confidence from the head of state in a man who has earned the tag of Mr Fix it despite being a civil service outsider.
Waita, a former longserving executive at Safaricom, first entered into the public service in April 2015. At the time, Uhuru was seen to be keen to tap Waita’s experience as an outsider from one of Kenya’s most profitable blue chip firms to inject fresh impetus in the public service.
When he was poached from Safaricom, where he was responsible for legal, public policy and corporate affairs, he was given the sole duty of streamlining operations within government as head of the Presidential Delivery Unit.
Barely two years after his appointment, Waita, a UK-trained lawyer who is former schoolmate of Uhuru at the elite St Mary’s School was handed more powers in the Jubilee administration when he was named deputy chief of staff at State House
He deputised Kinyua, one of the president’s trusted men and an experienced bureaucrat.
Waita in July 2016 rattled heads when he publicly lamented that cartels had infiltrated land acquisition for big infrastructure projects, inflating costs and in turn putting at risk their implementation.
He is said to be a serious contender for the seat. His backers include Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka. Waita hails from the Kamba community.
For Kibicho, close friends of Uhuru backing him include Kirinyaga governor Anne Waiguru. Kibicho who hails from Kirinyaga, is a no-nonsense administrator who executes government policies regardless of the political ramifications.
Behind the scenes, Kibicho is, without a doubt, the super principal secretary, chairing the powerful National Development Implementation Technical Committee, which was formed by the president through executive order Number 1 of 2019 dated January 21.

Kibichio

With that, he has the administrative networks of the national government on speed dial and is Uhuru’s Mr Fix It. With new powers at his disposal, and support from State House, Kibicho has been an insider in the supposed war on corruption and the reorganisation of Uhuru’s administration. He is said to be a serious contender for Kinyua’s seat.
Indeed, since the 2017 elections, senior civil servants have been lobbying through the president’s men and even his family members so that they be considered when the position becomes vacant.
But the president has been unwilling to let go Kinyua, his right hand man, fearing it would open floodgates of vested interests.
Kinyua was elevated to head the Public Service immediately Jubilee took power in 2013 and enjoys cordial relations with the president.
In 2016, he had requested to retire but the president is said to have prevailed upon him to stay on at least until after the elections. When Uhuru attended Kinyua’s mother’s funeral in 2017, he was forced to defend Kinyua from accusations by locals that Kinyua had been of no value to them at all despite having held big offices for decades.
Kinyua has been telling close friends that he intends to leave public service once the president okays the move. It is in this light that there has been open jostling for his position.
Kinyua, according to State House sources, is a workaholic and incorruptible, and has remained frugal.
Even as his colleagues immerse themselves in flamboyance, he surrenders his government vehicles on Fridays and uses his private cars on weekends, including pick-ups, even though his home in Nyeri is nearer Nairobi.
When at the Treasury, Kinyua reported to work at 4am when even Uhuru as Finance minister trooped in at 8am or much later.
He remains an early riser even at State House. Kinyua’s job description includes coordination of cabinet affairs and programmes for which those in the know argued meant he should have been vetted by the Public Service Commission and parliament as stipulated in article 10 of the constitution.