Governor Charity Ngilu to unveil cabinet

Kitui Governor Charity Ngilu, who is expected to unveil her cabinet on October 3, 2017. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

Kitui Governor Charity Ngilu is expected to unveil a leaner cabinet as she makes her maiden address to the County Assembly this afternoon.

Mrs Ngilu will table for vetting names of her nominees to the county executive committee when she opens the first session of the assembly to spell out her agenda for the county.

Upon taking office in August, Mrs Ngilu embarked on streamlining the administration she inherited from her predecessor Julius Malombe where she reduced the number of county ministries from ten to eight.

According to a press advert inviting applicants for county executive committee members, the ministry of coordination of county affairs was abolished while that of culture and sports was merged with tourism ministry.

YOUTH

The youth and skills development has been made a department under the ministry of education.

Sources told the Nation that interviews for the county ministers had been concluded and the proposed cabinet list was ready.

All eyes will be on Mrs Ngilu as she takes the podium to introduce to county assembly members her five pillar pro-poor manifesto that catapulted her to office on August 8.

The Governor’s Narc party is the Minority side with 13 MCAs out of the 54 member assembly and she is expected to forge a bipartisan working relationship to push her agenda in the House dominated by the Wiper party.

Observers are also watching with interest to see how the governor manoeuvres in the Assembly headed by her long standing political rival Speaker George Ndotto.

Mrs Ngilu has expressed her willingness to work with MCAs drawn from all parties and has told them that they are leaders elected to serve the same residents who elected her as their Governor and that there should never be political party boundaries after elections.

CAMPAIGN PROMISES

“We should embrace each other because at this point it doesn’t matter which political vehicle or aircraft you used to get elected, what matters most now is how we work together in a bipartisan way to deliver on our campaign promises and transform people’s lives” Mrs Ngilu said.

 “Let’s all appreciate our conversion from candidates to elected leaders and work together for the common good of all Kitui people” Governor Ngilu said during a get to know each other luncheon she hosted for the MCAs at her Ithookwe home last month.

The Governor said the people of Kitui must feel a difference within the first 100 days of her administration especially on her key election pledges of provision of water, better health care and food security.

She said her administration will be service oriented and that she wants to see in the first 100 days, all health facilities well equipped and fully functioning, access to clean water improved and residents given free certified seeds for the next rain season.  

For ten years, Mrs Ngilu served as a cabinet minister for water and health ministries, which are both devolved functions and during her campaigns she was passionate about making a lasting impact in addressing the two challenges.