President Uhuru set to name 23 Principal Secretaries this week

By Geoffrey Mosoku

Nairobi, Kenya: President Uhuru Kenyatta is expected to name 23 Principal Secretaries (PSs) this week, with sources indicating that the names may be submitted to Parliament by on Tuesday.

Although the President set a Cabinet of 18 ministries, the law allows him to name more than one PS in ministries that are large.

The Constitution stipulates that the PSs are heads of department, with the Jubilee Government set to release a new structure that creates the department mesh that they will head.

The National Treasury and Ministry of Interior Affairs and Coordination of National Government are some of the dockets that will have more than one PS.

Monday, highly placed sources indicated that Uhuru and his Deputy William Ruto had agreed on the list of 23 that was largely arrived at from the 66-name list submitted to him by the Public Service Commission (PSC).

The source added that the two have also made some changes by picking new faces of experts who did not appear in the PSC shortlist, but whom they felt are highly qualified to serve.

“The names will be submitted to Parliament tomorrow (Monday),” a senior Jubilee official close to the President said. Other sources indicate that some serving PSs who the Ethics And Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has questioned may have been dropped from the list, as the President was keen not to face embarrassment.

Above board

Last week, EACC faulted the process of selecting PSs with vice-chairman Irene Keino accusing PSC of conducting an exercise that may have not been above board.

She said the commission had launched investigations into the process and has so far visited PSC offices as part of their investigation.

“Allegations were received by the EACC that qualified and competent applicants were not shortlisted for unknown reasons. The process was not carried out in a fair and transparent manner,” said Ms Keino.

She said after the complaints were registered they commenced their investigations.  Ms Keino said PSC had asked EACC to help them with information touching on the 155 applicants and the commission prepared a report that was handed over.

The report named 15 of the applicants as being under probe by the EACC, she added. “We conducted an investigation and the commission prepared a report which it handed to the Public Service Commission and in which applicants under investigation by EACC were named,” she said.

Consumer Federation of Kenya has also moved to court to block the recruitment exercise on grounds of corruption.