Careers end as Uhuru presidency takes shape

PHOTO | JENNIFER MUIRURI Principal Secretary nominee Ntiba Micheni takes an oath before vetting by the parliamentary Agriculture, Livestock and Cooperatives committee at Continental House in Nairobi on June 19, 2013.  NATION MEDIA GROUP

By ISAAC ONGIRI 

 

In Summary

• Veterans who spent nearly their entire careers in the public service among them Patrick Nyoike (Energy), Joseph Kinyua (Finance), Karega Mutahi (Local Government), Mark Bor (Housing), Dorothy Angote (Lands), Romano Kiome (Agriculture), Mohammed Isahakia (Office of the Prime Minister), Mwangi Thuita (Foreign Affairs) are exiting as a new crop of chief officers, mostly their former juniors take over
• Only Mutea Iringo (Internal Security), Kibicho Karanja (Transport) and Prof Japhet Micheni Ntiba of Fisheries survived in a 26-member team unveiled by the President two weeks ago

The coming of a new regime after the March 4 General Election has brought careers of some of the long-serving Permanent Secretaries to an end.

As the new dispensation under President Kenyatta takes shape, some of the PSs last week handed over offices they held for over 10 years to their deputies as Parliament concluded vetting new Principle Secretaries.

This followed an order from the Office of the President on their exit.

On Tuesday Parliament is expected to deliberate on several committee reports on the vetting of the new PSs which will be followed by the formal taking over of offices.

Even though many of the outgoing PSs opted out of the new Principle Secretaries’ jobs when they were advertised by the Public Service Commission of Kenya, most of those who attempted to stay on failed to secure the jobs.

Most powerful dockets

Instead only Mutea Iringo (Internal Security), Kibicho Karanja (Transport) and Prof Japhet Micheni Ntiba of Fisheries survived in a 26-member team unveiled by the President two weeks ago.

Mr Iringo did not apply for the job, while Mr Karanja applied but did not make it to the short list forwarded to President Kenyatta. The two, however, got nominations to the most powerful dockets of Interior and Foreign Affairs respectively.

Veterans who spent nearly their entire careers in the public service among them Patrick Nyoike (Energy), Joseph Kinyua (Finance), Karega Mutahi (Local Government), Mark Bor (Housing), Dorothy Angote (Lands), Romano Kiome (Agriculture), Mohammed Isahakia (Office of the Prime Minister), Mwangi Thuita (Foreign Affairs) are exiting as a new crop of chief officers, mostly their former juniors take over.

Information and Communication PS Bitange Ndemo, who steered the docket for close to seven years but failed to secure the job under the new administration and Prof Mutahi, who clocked close to two decades in public service, are among those retiring following regime change.

It will be difficult

Mr Nyoike who served government for close to 40 years joined the Public Service in 1971 as a statistician then served at Planning, Communications, Finance and Energy ministries at senior levels before becoming PS when Kibaki became President in 2002.

Mr Nyoike and his outgoing Finance counterpart Mr Kinyua are among those who could be retained by the Jubilee government as advisors to the President.

“It will be difficult to just throw out Mr Kinyua and Mr Nyoike like that. It is true plans are on to have them assigned responsibilities as advisors to the Presidency to enable the government to continue to benefit from their unrivalled experience in the economic and energy sectors,” a source at the President’s Office said.

Speaking to the Nation, Mr Nyoike said he is retiring into private consultancy after 10 years of service in government.

“I am going into consultancy mostly in the energy and petroleum sectors ...these are my areas, you know. I am receiving quite a lot of local and international bookings already,” he said.

Asked whether he had been approached for retention by the Kenyatta administration, the 67-year-old Mr Nyoike said: “No I have not been contacted by anybody for any other State job.”

And Ms Angote, who ran the Lands docket, said she was happy to retire, adding that she will take time out to rest before deciding what to do later.