Names of likely cabinet secretaries

President-elect Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President-elect William Ruto’s Cabinet will be made up of young professionals and members from the private sector.

Various sources told the Nation that Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto have formally started work on their Cabinet from names provided by their teams as they race to put in place a government ahead of their swearing-in on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, after being taken through drills on how they will be sworn in, the President-elect and his deputy went into a meeting to agree on the size of the Cabinet, which must not exceed 22 ministries, and their holders.

The Assumption of the Office of the President team led by Head of Civil Service Francis Kimemia has proposed merging of some of the existing 42 ministries to allow for the new maximum limit of 22 set by the Constitution.

However, the incoming government is not bound by the Kimemia proposals.

The two are under pressure from their advisers, MPs and senators to ignore seasoned politicians and appoint entirely new faces to their first Cabinet.

TNA and URP, under their pre-election coalition terms, agreed to share the seats on 50-50 basis.

Some of the non-politicians whose names are featuring prominently in the list of those under consideration are Bidco chief executive Vimal Shah, top bankers Mohamed Aden (Barclays) and James Mwangi (Equity), Kenya Airways boss Titus Naikuni, President Kibaki’s adviser Nancy Gitau, Treasury head of governance Anne Waiguru and Central Bank of Kenya deputy governor Haron Sirima.

Others are Amaco Insurance boss Silas Simatwo, Vision 2030 secretariat boss Mugo Kebati, former electoral commission official Davis Chirchir, Kass FM owner Joshua Chepkwony and Mombasa businessman David Lang’at,

Others being mentioned include Unep deputy director and nominee for World Trade Organisation boss Amina Mohamed, and former MPs Abdikadir Mohamed, Raphael Tuju and Shem Ochuodho.

The prospective individuals will, however, face an integrity test with President-elect Kenyatta and Mr Ruto which seeks to ensure that no one with a tainted past is named to the Cabinet.