For former East African Community and Regional Development Cabinet Secretary Adan Abdulla Mohammed, his exit from the government and taking a plunge into politics marks a 360 degrees move.
Born in Elwak, Mandera County, Mohammed, the Harvard Business School-trained banker has been to the pinnacle of the corporate world, capped with a 10-year stint in Cabinet.
In February, he made a decision to leave the city for Mandera and “give back to his community”.
Mohammed was among Cabinet Secretaries who resigned to seek elective positions in the August 9 General Election.
The son of an assistant chief in Elwak, the former CS counts himself lucky among peers in the village, given that his father could afford to take him through school hoping that he would become a District Officer.
But luck smiled on him and he served as the Managing Director of Barclays Bank in East and West Africa before President Uhuru Kenyatta plucked him from the corporate world to join the government in 2013 as Industrialisation Cabinet Secretary.
On his last day as CS, dressed in crispy brown suit, Mohammed looked set to plunge into the murky world of politics.
The 59-year-old banker said if he loses the Mandera governor’s race he will never vie again for an elective seat. “I hope the people will see value in me and give me the opportunity to represent them,” he said.
In the middle of the interview, Health CS Mutahi Kagwe calls Mohammed and they share light moments as his colleague wishes him luck in his endevour.
A few minutes later, the interview is interrupted as the CS requests for privacy to answer an important call. President Uhuru Kenyatta is on the other end.
Asked if the President was trying to convince him to join his Azimio la Umoja political wing, he responded: “It was just a courtesy call, he was just returning my call. Beyond being my boss, I knew him before I left Barclays. He was then minister for finance.”
Away from government insulation, in the political wilderness, Mohammed will have to battle it out with former Education CAS Noor Hassan and Mandera County Assembly Speaker Mohamed Khalif who are seeking to succeed Governor Ali Roba.
The father of three boys and two girls says there will be a lot of consultation that will influence the political wing he will join between Azimio la Umoja led by Raila Odinga and Kenya Kwanza Alliance led by William Ruto.
“It is too early to settle on any formation. It will also depend on where the population of the county will lean towards,” he says.
In a region partly controlled by clan politics, the former banker dismisses elders’ endorsement claiming that most of them are family endorsement rather than the interest of the people.
“I want to reach out to the entire population which is much diversified and mixed to make a difference,” he says.
Having kept his political ambitions private, Mohammed informed the President last week that he will be trying his luck at Mandera governorship.
“The idea is that I now need to make a transition and change can sometimes be uncomfortable just like what I made when I left Barclays to join the government,” he says.
He discloses that when he joined the government, he took an 80 per cent pay cut because of the interest to serve the country.
“It was an opportunity that came at the right time to serve the country and I’m proud to be among the few CSs that served throughout the entire administration,” he says.
If you are in the private sector, Mohammed says, one is not complete until they have a stint in the public sector because it is such a different environment, where priorities are not profits, returns to shareholders, motivating staff to make more money and you get rewarded for performance.
“It is easy to get frustrated,” he says,
But what kept him going was that from the onset, the President had advised him that sometimes you will feel that “you are taking two steps forward and three steps backwards and that is the government.”
He regrets the missed opportunity to create special economic zones like to have first class trains, low electricity cost, no taxes and get approvals in a short time. But Mohammed says you cannot change the whole country.
One of the delayed projects is Dongo Kundu which has been evading different governments for about 30 years.
On the other hand, he introduced one of the key policy issues like admitting Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) into the East African Community and making trade in the region vibrant.
His last major assignment on the day he exited on February 8 was chairing an inter-ministerial meeting of cooperating DRC, a decision that will now have to be ratified by the heads of states of the regional block. He also finalized a trade agreement with the European Union, which is a major milestone.
He describes President Kenyatta as a good friend and a boss who exhibits tough love and expects results, appreciates good work and is impatient with non-performance.
On his relationship with Ruto, he says: “He is a good colleague in the Cabinet where we mostly interact on activities that are brought before us. I have not had specific issues for the last nine years with him.”
