Listen At independence, Titus Musembi Mbathi was one of Kenya’s pioneer technocrats together with the likes of Kenneth Matiba (Permanent Secretary) and Duncan Ndegwa (Governor, Central Bank of Kenya). Mbathi served as a Permanent Secretary (PS) under President Jomo Kenyatta and President Daniel arap Moi, first in the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development and […]
Listen Taita Kipyegon arap Towett first joined politics in 1958, when he was elected to the Legislative Council to represent Kericho District. When the Kenya African Democratic Union (KADU) party was formed in 1960, he became its chief adviser and even prophesied the death of the Kenya African National Union (KANU) within the next four […]
Listen Timothy Mibei served as Minister for Public Works between 1989 and 1992. His entry into the Cabinet came as a consequence of President Daniel arap Moi’s policy to replace Cabinet Ministers who he had relieved of their duties, with new ones from the same region. Thus Mibei replaced John Koech after the latter differed […]
Listen Stephen Kanyinke ole Ntutu ventured into politics in 1997 when he won the Narok South parliamentary seat from the incumbent, Samson ole Tuya. The following year, President Daniel arap Moi appointed him as an Assistant Minister in the East African Community. Born on 1 January 1958 in Narok District (now known as Narok County), […]
Listen It is said that one should never despise one’s humble beginnings, for who knows where they could lead? This saying rings true for Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka, who rose from being a poor village boy in the dry, windswept town of Tseikuru on the northern fringes of present-day Kitui County to become a Cabinet Minister […]
Listen From 1963 to 1983, Stanley Shapashina ole Oloitiptip bestrode Maasai politics like a colossus, and when he dropped out of the national limelight, his political career collapsed like a house of cards – ending with a 12-month jail term. Born in 1924 in Endoinyo Oontawua, at the foot of Mt Kilimanjaro, Oloitiptip was the […]
Listen As perhaps one of the most prominent provincial administrators in Kenya, Simeon Nyandusi Nyachae was the embodiment of hard work and resilience; a man who painstakingly scaled the ranks of public administration to become a contender for the presidency – from District Commissioner to Provincial Commissioner, parastatal head, Head of Public Service and Secretary […]
Listen Shariff Nassir bin Taib was the most voluble politician in Coast Province, perhaps even in Kenya, during President Daniel arap Moi’s regime. The Mvita MP who served from 1974 to 2002 was known to comment on anything and everything under the sun. In his eyes Moi was omnipotent, second only to deity. Nassir even […]
Listen After clinching the Nyaribari Masaba Constituency seat in the 1988 General Election, Professor Sam Ongeri was immediately appointed as Minister for Technical Training and Applied Technology. This was a newly-created ministry, therefore Ongeri and his team had to define what its mandate was going to be. “I remember we were given the eighth, ninth […]
Listen President Daniel arap Moi stunned the country and the world at large when he appointed his erstwhile critic, Dr Richard Erskine Frere Leakey, to head Kenya’s Public Service in July 1999. Leakey’s mandate was to head a group of rapid response technocrats, succinctly called the ‘Dream Team’, assembled by the President to bring discipline […]