President William Ruto has moved to avert a looming crisis at the Public Service Commission (PSC) with eight new nominees for posts that were due to fall vacant early next year.
The list, which includes three Principal Secretaries (PSs) who served during the administration of retired President Uhuru Kenyatta, also has former Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) commissioner Boya Molu, who served during the chairmanship of Wafula Chebukati.
Mary Wanjira Kimonye, who served Kenyatta’s government as PS for the State Department of Public Service, is poised to take up the post of vice chairperson of the PSC if Parliament approves the nominations.
Mwanamaka Amani Mabruki and Dr Francis Otieno Owino have been nominated as commission members after serving as PSs for devolution and youth affairs respectively in the Kenyatta era.
“To facilitate a seamless transition within the PSC, the President has today exercised his constitutional prerogative by nominating individuals to serve in the ranks of the membership of the commission,” reads a public notice signed by Head of Public Service Felix Koskei.
“This presidential action seeks to proactively address the forthcoming vacancies in the offices of the vice-chairperson and six members of the commission, expected to occur in mid-January 2025, with an additional vacancy anticipated in April 2025.”
Others on the list include Harun Maalim Hassan, who is currently serves as the CEO of the National Council for People with Disabilities (NCPWD), and Dr Irene Cherotich Asienga, who was a commissioner at the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA) during the Kenyatta administration.
Former National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) director-general Francis Meja and Joan Andisi Machayo, who sat on the board of the National Employment Authority as an alternate director to the PSC CEO under President Kenyatta, have also made the list of new nominees.
The nominations come just a day after Dr Ruto announced major Cabinet and other top-level changes that saw key figures allied to his predecessor land plump State jobs in what has been largely seen as a political scheme to quell growing anti-government hostility in Mr Kenyatta’s Mt Kenya backyard.
