President William Ruto on Wednesday, May 31 made a surprising decision in dropping former Kiambu CEC Faith Njeri Harrison who was nominated as the Principal Secretary for Performance Management within the office of Prime Cabinet Secretary.
Ruto withdrew her nomination two weeks after he picked her, replacing her with Anne Njoki Wang’ombe Principal Secretary, State Department for Performance Management and Delivery Services, Office of the Prime Cabinet Secretary.
The President had announced through Head of Public Service Felix Koskei that he had nominated Njeri for the prized position, but two weeks later, the scope changed.
Njeri’s nomination had come about due to a vacancy created by the dismissal of Dr Josephine Mburu as the PS for Public Health and Professional Standards.
The change of heart raised eyebrows among Kenyans who questioned whether Njeri was sacked even before she assumed office. The President notably did not reveal anything regarding the revoking of Njeri’s nomination.
But in a statement clarifying the happening, Njeri through her spokesman Albert Nyakundi said she withdrew from the position on her own volition.
“Faith Njeri Harrison voluntarily withdrew as a PS nominee to pursue personal interests contrary to allegations that H.E William Samoei Ruto revoked her nomination,” the spokesman said.
He went on to clarify that his boss was never involved in corruption or even passed fake dollar notes, adding that the false and misleading ongoing rumours of her corruption cases had charges against her doctored by the previous regime under former President Uhuru Kenyatta.
“Njeri was not in possession of Fake US dollars as alleged but it was a pure witch hunt by the former regime using the former DCI Director George Kinoti through the disbanded Special Service Unit (SSU),” she added.
“She has never been involved in any corruption matters and she was never arraigned in any court of law and has no pending matter(s) in court as she was cleared by relevant agencies.”
The former Kiambu CEC urged those spreading false information about her nomination and criminal record to cease tarnishing her reputation.
Njeri worked as the Chief Finance Officer of Kiambu County under former governor Ferdinard Waititu and had faced controversy in 2019 when she was arrested while addressing a gathering at a hotel where she accused Waititu of having dictatorship tendencies.
“Many of the properties, including staff quarters and quarries, have been sold to private individuals. We can not work this way,” she complained.
Waititu, during his impeachment in January 2020, accused his former CEC of being part of a group that accused him of misappropriating Ksh588 million.
Ruto nominated Wang’ombe as the replacement for Esther Ngero, who resigned for personal reasons.
