President William Ruto withdrew the nomination of Faith Njeri Harrison as Principal Secretary for Performance Management within the Office of the Prime Cabinet Secretary, two weeks after picking her for the position.
This is among others, because of the failure of the president to consult on such nominees before making an announcement.
It emerged Ruto, who has of late been hard on government individuals named in graft-related issues did not make use of intelligence provided on Njeri before moving to announce her nomination.
He came to know Njeri has a serious case of handling fake dollars and this was to taint her and the government’s image at large after the media published a 2019 case in which she had been arrested.
He then decided to change his mind and dropped Njeri’s name.
“Had the president consulted widely and made use of intelligence all these blunders would have been avoided. We are now left fighting back and given we have many other officials in government with serious pending criminal cases in courts,” said an official aware of the issue.
The standard requirement is that before one is nominated, a background check is done for the president to know the kind of individual being pushed forward. That did not happen, an official said.
In April 2019, Njeri and her driver, Harrison Kungu, were apprehended by the Special Crimes Unit police in Parklands, Nairobi.
The arrest came after they were allegedly found in possession of counterfeit United States dollars totaling Sh67,000.
Njeri and Kungu were stopped while driving a double cabin vehicle that displayed Government of Kenya number plates instead of the appropriate plates designated for county governments.
In the inaugural list of 51 PSs nominees submitted to the National Assembly by the Head of State for vetting and approval by Ruto, Caroline Nyawira Murage was nominated to the Correctional Services post.
However, the wife of Ndia MP George Kariuki later rejected the nomination before the vetting exercise in November last year after backlash from the public.
She would write to the President requesting the withdrawal of her nomination as confirmed by Speaker Moses Wetang’ula.
This paved the way for Muthoni, Women in Business’s chief executive officer, to be nominated as a replacement ahead of the vetting.
Ruto nominated Anne Njoki Wang’ombe to be the new PS for the State Department for Performance Management and Delivery Services in the Office of the Prime Cabinet Secretary.
This comes weeks after he had nominated former Njeri Harrison to the same position after the resignation of Esther Ngero.
Wang’ombe, whose nomination awaits approval by Parliament, currently serves as the Manager at Kenya Revenue Authority Staff Pension Scheme (KRASPS), a position she has held since 2018.
She was previously the lead Human Resources Consultant for Mannion Daniels Africa Limited and also served as the Assistant Director, Human Resources & Administration at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI).
Ruto nominated Advocate Salome Wairimu Muhia-Beacco as the PS for State Department for Correctional Services to replace Ngero who was sacked from the government.
Wairimu has been an advocate of the High Court for 26 years and has served in various management roles at Bamburi Cement Company Limited, AIG Insurance Co. Ltd, Phoenix of East Africa Insurance Company Limited, and ICEA Insurance.
“The nominees, if granted the seal of approval by Parliament, will join the senior ranks of the Executive in the following portfolios,” said Koskei.
