24 September 2018 2 Min Read

Do you know them? Meet Uhuru Kenyatta's dream team to build his legacy

by Grace Kerongo Habari

President Uhuru Kenyatta has employed 45 people in the last two weeks at the Presidential Delivery Unit in a bid to build his legacy. The contracts of the current team hired in 2015 have expired, but the government has not officially communicated if it will reassign the officials.

“PDU is directly under the Head of Staff Nzioka Waita and I can’t comment on it,” acting State House spokesperson Kanze Dena said.

Among those who have joined are former Nema board member Patrick Ngatia, former NTV business reporter Laban Onserio, former Kasipul Kapondo MP Silvanus Onyango and Citizen reporter Mumbi Warui.

Others are former Buuri MP Boniface Kinoti, former Bomet aspirant Michael Rotich and former Royal Media Services managing editor Nixon Ng’ang’a.

“These are presidential appointments and the person to respond is Kanze Dena and the Head of the President’s Delivery Unit, Nzioka Waita,” PDU head Andrew Wakahiu said.

Nexus - baptized 36 bloggers - based at the Deputy President William Ruto’s office - has also joined the PDU with one of them - Melkzadeck Ochenga - taking up the position of an assistant director.

Other officials who joined PDU still have a low profile. They include a number from the private sector and those who have strongly taken part in the political activities pushing for Uhuru’s agenda.

Interior ministry sources told the Star some of the current employees whose contracts have expired might be deployed to other government agencies. The new ones will serve for three years.

The new employees are expected to help the President deliver on the Big Four agenda, enhance service delivery in the public sector and deliver on the graft purge to leave a legacy.

“The contracts of most of the people who joined the government when Uhuru was elected in 2013 are supposed to have ended. Some have been renewed, others are waiting for gratuity, while others might be reappointed,” the source said

The new directors will be supported by a secretariat to brand the President and prepare for a possible referendum in a couple of years’ time. “Its mandated to improve the coordination of national government flagship programmes, monitor, evaluate and report on and the timely fulfillment of Uhuru’s key development priorities,” an insider said.

Those who joined in 2015 are Andrew Wakahiu, Lee Kyonze, Eliud Lelerai, Nyamu Githaka and Cindy Kuria who hold the positions of directors in the presidency. They are charged with various sectors of the economy.

“The Delivery Unit, which reports to the Chief of Staff and Head of the President’s Delivery Unit, Nzioka Waita, works alongside other essential offices and departments within the Presidency,” reads the PDU website. Nzioka did not pick our calls. PDU was established in 2015 to be based in the Office of the President.