President William Ruto finally unveiled the structure of his government yesterday, accommodating nominee for Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi in the Executive Office of the President and creating new positions.
In Executive Order No. 1 of 2022, Dr Ruto created five new positions in his office, spreading the opportunities to his campaign allies left out in initial announcements.
The new positions are the Office of the Council of Economic Advisors – expected to suck in the core of his economic strategists, the Office of the Council of Climate Change Advisor, Office of Fiscal Affairs and Budget Policy, Office of Economic Transformation and Deputy Head of Presidential Communication Service who will also double up as the State House Spokesman.
The spokesman will report to the Head of Presidential Communication Service. Ruto also merged the roles of Chief of Staff and Head of Public Service to create the double title of Chief of Staff and Head of Public Service.
Joseph Kinyua, who announced the changes, has been serving as Head of Civil Service. The last Chief of Staff was Nzioka Waita who resigned earlier this year to join elective politics.
“It is notified that (President) William Ruto has set his hand and presidential seal to the Executive Order organising his administration,” Kinyua announced last evening.
On top of these new roles, Ruto’s office will have a deputy Chief of Staff, Secretary to the Cabinet, Office of the National Security Advisor, Office of the Women Rights Advisor and the Private Secretary to the President.
In demarcating between the Office of Deputy President and Office of the Prime Cabinet Secretary, Ruto moved the Prime Cabinet Secretary to sit at Kenya Railways Headquarters, off Haile Selassie Avenue. The Deputy President sits at the Harambee Annex, opposite the Office of the President, both off Harambee Avenue.
Gachagua has been allocated eight key offices and institutions under his belt, compared to Mudavadi’s six. While the two will have two Principal Administrative Secretaries (PAS) each, Gachagua will on top of that have a Private Secretary, just like the President.
His two PAS’s – not to be confused with Principal Secretaries or Chief Adminstrative Secretaries – will oversee the devolution and intergovernmental affairs as well as administration and coordination. The former office of Chief of Staff of the DP appears to have been swallowed up between the PAS administration and Private Secretary of the DP.
On top of these three offices, Gachagua has with him the offices of International Development Partnerships Co-ordination, Nairobi Rivers Commission, Inter-Government Budget and Economic Council, Inter-Governmental Relations Technical Committee and the National and County Governments Honours Advisory Committee.
Of the two Mudavadi PAS’s, one will be in charge of Parliamentary Liaison and Legislative Affairs while the other will oversee Performance Management and Delivery Services.
Besides these two offices, Mudavadi’s Kenya Railway office will house the Public Service Performance Management Unit, State Corporations Advisory Committee (SCAC), Inspectorate of State Corporations, which were once domiciled in the defunct Office of the Prime Minister.
Mudavadi will also be in charge of the new office of Government Delivery Unit (GDU), the presumed successor of Presidential Delivery Unit (PDU) that was domiciled at State House.
In mandates terms, Ruto assigned Gachagua seven mandates while assigning Mudavadi five. Besides the principal assistant job decreed by Article 147 of the Constitution, Gachagua will oversee implementation of Cabinet decisions, co-ordinate Inter-Governmental relations, oversee constitutional Commissions and Independent Offices, development partner programs and public sector reforms. Mudavadi will assist Ruto and Gachagua in co-ordinating and supervising government ministries and state departments, work closely with ministry of interior to oversee government policies, programmes and projects, co-ordinate government legislative agenda, chair the Principal Secretaries Committees and supervise the technical monitoring and evaluation of Government policies, programmes and projects.
Mudavadi and Gachagua will in addition perform any other roles assigned to them by the President.
Ministries largely reflect the structure as announced by the President when he unveiled his cabinet nominees. Housing department moves from Roads ministry to Lands, together with department of public works, and urban development.
Information and Communication ministry has a new element to it – digital economy, but no new institution has been added to it in the order. The Hustler Fund, under Micro and Small Enterprises Act, No. 55 of 2012, has been placed under state department for micro, small and medium enterprise development.
National Youth Service is domiciled in the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Arts, now headquartered at the Kenya National Library Services Headquarters. The new ministry for East Africa has with it new department for Arid and Semi Arid and regional development, while the Ministry of Mining takes with it new departments of blue economy, shipping and maritime affairs previously domiciled elsewhere.
The executive order was not clear on the fate of Chief Administrative Secretaries (CAS).
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