Uhuru will need all his rugby skills to win game at Treasury

The Uhuru Kenyatta most Kenyans saw on Thursday was shaped by the media and politics. But at Treasury, the former St Mary’s School rugby player who underwent a veritable baptism of fire shortly after replacing Mr Amos Kimunya is a different proposition altogether.

Officials talk of a personality keen to avoid the pitfalls that cut short the careers of Mr Kimunya and Mr David Mwiraria, who were there before him. Both, not unlike him, went to the apparently jinxed Treasury without any publicly known blemish.

“Unlike some of his predecessors who were rather aloof, he likes to consult widely before making a decision,” said a parastatal chief who served under the two Finance ministers.

Anglo Leasing

Mr Mwiraria fell on his sword over the Anglo Leasing scandal while Mr Kimunya was hounded out by Parliament over the alleged irregular sale of the Grand Regency, now Laico Regency, hotel. Both foe and friend point out that Mr Kenyatta’s caucusing and networking skills are bound to stand him in good stead and may save him the fate his predecessors suffered.

Finance ministry officials describe Mr Kenyatta as being accessible and always ready to meet top officials at their request, quite a change from what they describe as the arrogance of some past holders of the office. Mr Kenyatta, being a scion of a prominent family and harbouring presidential ambitions, would naturally have wanted to be the first to serve in the docket for a considerable and uninterrupted term since Mr James Gichuru ended his tenure in 1969.

Although the fiasco over the Supplementary Budget in May due to the “typing error” threatened to bring an end to this expectation, he is reported to have vowed to soldier on. The controversy over the Supplementary Budget is said to have cost Treasury officials two weeks, compelling the minister, his officials, and those of the Kenya Revenue Authority and the Attorney General’s office to work seven days a week to catch up.

How he handles this year’s budget and any others to come will determine his legacy at Treasury. Not unlike Mr Mwiraria in 2003, he inherits an economy yielding low revenues and in huge demand of resources. No other minister has had to borrow Sh109 billion from the domestic market before, and especially not at a time when the banking industry is so short of liquidity.

Born in Kiambu on October 26, 1961, the man who professes to love travel is married with three children. Appointed Deputy Prime Minister after the Grand Coalition government was constituted in April, 2008, Mr Kenyatta is an economics and political science alumnus of Amherst College, Massachusetts.

He has chaired the Comesa council of ministers, the African Consultative Group on Agoa, the Parliamentary Accounts Committee, and has been a member of several House committees. Given his family’s business background, the business community will be watching to see how he treats the private sector.

The minister was involved in the family’s interests in manufacturing, hospitality, agriculture and horticulture, pharmaceutical, construction, property management, and dairy business before he plunged into elective politics.

He lists football and golf as his hobbies and loves watching athletics on television. Reading the Budget was the easier part for the Kanu chairman. Pulling the economy out of the current morass it has sunk into is the real challenge that he will have to focus all his skills on.