Chirchir, Duale lead nominees to face vetting body led by Speaker

Davis Chirchir and Aden Duale at the Bomas of Kenya on August 15, 2022. [David Gichuru, Standard]

Transport Cabinet Secretary nominee Davies Chirchir and Environment CS nominee Aden Duale will appear in Parliament tomorrow to prove their suitability to be in government.

They will face a vetting panel chaired by National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang'ula, which will decide if they can rejoin the Cabinet.

Agriculture CS nominee Dr Andrew Karanja, Water CS nominee Eric Muuga, and ICT CS nominee Dr Margaret Ndung'u will also appear before Wetang'ula's committee to justify their nominations by President William Ruto.

Chirchir, a close ally of President Ruto, previously served as Energy CS in President Uhuru Kenyatta's first Cabinet in 2013. He left office in 2015 after being implicated in a scandal but made a comeback in 2022 when Ruto was elected president.

In November last year, Azimio Party leader Raila Odinga called for the resignations of Chirchir and National Treasury CS Prof Njuguna Ndungu over a fuel scandal where the Treasury was accused of withdrawing funds to subsidise private enterprises, with the money disappearing.

“Chirchir and Ndung'u should be held accountable for the Sh17 billion withdrawn from the Consolidated Fund in the diesel scandal. In addition to spending funds above what was approved by Parliament, they must not only resign but also be prosecuted,” said Raila.

Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah said that he had found evidence linking the government, through Prof Ndung’u, to subsidies benefitting a private enterprise.

Chirchir also dismissed claims by businesswoman Ann Njeri that she was the bona-fide importer of the Sh17 billion cargo, saying her application for an oil importation license was rejected on October 29 by the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority.

The CS nominee has been criticised for the frequent nationwide power blackouts over the past year. He, however, noted that there haven't been any major electricity system upgrades in the last six years. He said there were plans to build a new 33KV line between Narok and Bomet to prevent future outages.

"The new line will take 20 months to complete and will be funded by the African Development Bank and Japan. Once it is completed, we will have reduced the overload line to prevent plunging the country into darkness going forward,” said Chirchir.

Duale, who hails from Garissa County and previously served as Garissa Town MP and National Assembly Majority Leader, has been fiercely loyal to Ruto.

He was initially nominated to return to the Defence docket when President Ruto announced his partial Cabinet only to be moved to the Environment docket, swapping places with Soipan Tuya.

In a past interview, Duale said President Uhuru Kenyatta once asked him to choose between supporting him or Deputy President Ruto. This, he said, put him at a crossroads since both Uhuru and Ruto were his friends.

“President Uhuru Kenyatta told me that I am one of his best friends and had delivered on my mandate in Parliament but the people around him had told him that I have split loyalty, and I had to choose between supporting Ruto or him, which left me surprised,” he said.

He said he told Uhuru that he was a Muslim and had become the National Assembly Majority Leader courtesy of URP allied to Ruto with the current President having done many good things for his family and that he was not going to betray him in his hour of need.

Dr Karanja, who served as a senior official in the ministry of Agriculture before being nominated, will be taking over from his former boss, Mithika Linturi, who was bogged down by a fake fertiliser scandal that almost got him impeached before he was saved on the floor of the House.

The Cabinet nominee who hails from Kiambu County will be out to tell the Wetang'ula-led committee about the intervention measures he will put in place to restore the confidence of Kenyans who are unhappy with the manner the crucial docket has been handled in the last two years.

Dr Karanja holds a degree in Agriculture and a Masters Degree in Agricultural Economics, both from the University of Nairobi, and a PhD in development economics and policy from Wegeningen University in the Netherlands. He has 36 years’ experience in the public sector.

Muuga is the youngest Cabinet Nominee and an outsider in the political scene having served as an engineer for the last eight years with his latest posting being the project engineer at the Kilifi Mariakani Water and Sewerage Company.

The 32-year-old nominee hails from Meru County. He holds a Masters Degree in Civil Engineering with specialisation in water resources.

Dr Ndung'u, who is an ICT expert, will be seeking to convince the committee that she can use her 20 years’ experience in the ICT sector to turn around the fortunes of the ministry.

Ndung’u has worked with Amref where she helped set up the first telemedicine project.