President Uhuru Kenyatta officially appoints new ministers, PSs

President Uhuru Kenyatta and DP William Ruto with the newly appointed Cabinet Secretaries and Principal Secretaries. (Photo: PSCU)

Nairobi: President Uhuru Kenyatta Friday signed the appointment of the new Cabinet Secretaries and Principal Secretaries, after Parliament approved their nomination on Wednesday.

The CSs now officially have the mandate to set the ball rolling in the dockets that had remained vacant since the suspension of their predecessors.

The CSs Mwangi Kiunjuri (Devolution), Joseph Mucheru (ICT), Charles Keter (Energy), Willy Bett (Agriculture), Cleopa Mailu (Health), Sicily Kariuki (Public Service and Youth) and Dan Kazungu (Mining) were declared as having a clean record on integrity because none of them had been adversely mentioned in any investigative report either in Parliament or within the Executive, according to a report of the Committee on Appointments.

Some MPs, however raised concerns that the appointments did not consider the gender rule as only one woman was selected after the exit of Charity Ngilu and Anne Waiguru.

Charles Keter and Dan Kazungu have, since the approval by the House, relinquished their posts as Kericho Senator and Malindi MP respectively to take up the new assignments.

The Principal Secretaries were approved Thursday, in a process that involved declaring their wealth as the Government puts in new measures to curb corruption in public offices.

“You will be responsible for what happens in your departments. There is no excuse,” said Uhuru while officiating the exercise.

All the new appointees will report to the Kenya School of Government for induction on Monday, December 21, according to Public Service Commission Chair Margaret Kobia.

A retreat will also be held for them at the end of the January.