New Cabinet Secretaries lay bare their deep pockets

Nominee to Devolution and Planning Ministry Mwangi Kiunjuri.

President Uhuru Kenyatta's seven nominees for Cabinet secretary are collectively worth Sh2.7 billion as per their own disclosure.

This emerged as the National Assembly cleared them for the top jobs Wednesday, paving the way for their appointment to the Cabinet by the Head of State.

The wealthiest among them is Mwangi Kiunjuri, nominee for the Devolution and Planning docket, with riches totaling Sh798 million.

And Dan Kazungu, the first term Malindi MP who has been nominated for the Cabinet Secretary, Mining post, has the least wealth of the seven, with a portfolio of Sh100 million.

The other nominees are Cleopa Mailu (Sh615 million), Joe Mucheru (Sh500 million), Charles Keter (Sh352 million), Sicily Kariuki (Sh168 million) and Willy Bett (Sh127.5 million).

According to the 59-page report of the Committee on Appointments, which Majority Leader Aden Duale (Garissa Township) tabled in the House, all the nominees were declared as having a clean record on integrity because none of them had been adversely mentioned in any investigative report either in Parliament or within the Executive.

Confidence boost

The revelations on the wealth of the nominees and a declaration that they are clean is a confidence boost for President Kenyatta’s Cabinet which suffered when nearly a third of it was suspended because of allegations of corruption and Devolution’s Anne Waiguru quit public service under a mountain of allegations.

The wealthiest of them, Mr Kiunjuri with Sh798 million, served in the National Assembly as MP for Laikipia East Constituency for 15 uninterrupted years — three parliamentary terms — and as an assistant minister in President Kibaki’s administration.

Kiunjuri said he made his money from land and buildings in Nanyuki, Sagana and Nairobi. The former MP, who lost elections in 2013, also told the committee chaired by Speaker Justin Muturi that he has a manufacturing factory that employs 200 people.

Dr Mailu, the chief executive officer of Nairobi Hospital, has worked in the health sectors in Kenya and India for 30 years, and made Sh67 million from his pay at the Nairobi Hospital in the past year. His net worth is Sh615 million.

When he joins Cabinet, Mailu will be slapped with a Sh50 million drop in his pay packet, but he convinced MPs that he does not plan to take side jobs to make up for the huge difference in income.

“The nominee does not envisage any deferred income or future benefits and does not have outside commitments he plans to pursue outside employment,” reads the report of the Committee on Appointments.

High stake

Joe Mucheru, the 47-year-old nominee for the ICT docket, has 20 years of experience in the industry. He has made Sh500 million so far and has Sh267 million in deferred income.

Mr Mucheru is the co-founder of Wananchi Online which is now Zuku — one of the pioneer Internet service providers in Kenya.

Because he will be heading the ICT docket, the potential for conflict of interest especially in companies where he has a stake is high, but the nominee assured the committee that he would be professional and incorruptible in his dealings.

To resolve this conflict of interest, the nominee stated that in the process of liquidating his interests, he would recuse himself from any decisions touching on the two companies.

Charles Keter, the senator for Kericho County and nominee for Energy and Petroleum, has made Sh352 million in his 22-year career as a professional in the telecommunications industry and as a politician – he has been in politics for the last 12 years.

Before joining the Senate, he was the Member of Parliament for Belgut constituency for 10 years. He also served as an assistant minister in the Energy docket.

The 46-year-old Keter, who worked as a manager of the anti-fraud section at Telkom Kenya and who has also been trained in economic fraud by Crown Agents, United Kingdom, will likely steer the Cabinet on the integrity path — that’s if these skills are ever needed.

45-year-old Kazungu made his wealth in his two-decade career in the information and communication technology industry, that saw him head multinationals such as Lenovo and International Business Machines in Africa. He joined politics in 2013 and has a Sh100 million portfolio.

Agriculture docket

Willy Bett, the 52-year-old nominee for the Agriculture docket, has a net worth of Sh127.5 million accumulated in his 26-year-old career that began at Post Bank Credit and finally landed him at the helm of the Kenya Seed Company.

The only female nominee, Sicily Kariuki, who has been picked to head the Public Service and Youth Affairs docket, said she has a net worth of Sh168 million mainly from her investments, assets and salary.

The nominee said she did not envisage any deferred income or future benefits and did not have commitments she planned to pursue outside employment.

Now that her docket will deal with civil servants, her only worry is how to deal with a relative who is a unionist in the civil service.

She declared that she had a relative who is an official of the Union of Kenya Civil Servants ans stated that she would adhere to Article 73 of the Constitution in carrying out her duties.