Inside The Lives of Uhuru's New CSs: Mutahi Kagwe and Betty Maina

Mutahi Kagwe

On January 14 while addressing the country from State House, Mombasa, President Uhuru Kenyatta nominated former Nyeri Senator Mutahi Kagwe as the new CS for Health.

Born in January 1958, Mutahi is a tenured Kenyan politician who served as the first Senator of Nyeri County.

Kagwe attended Kihate Primary School between 1965 and 1971, before joining Kagumo High School for both his O and A levels between 1972 and 1977.

He would later join the University of Nairobi to study commerce between 1978 and 1981 and later the United States International University (USIU) between 1988 and 1992 for his MBA. 

Between 1987 and 1989  the nominee worked as an Advertising Manager of The Standard Limited and in 1989 he has promoted to the Commercial Manager a position he held until 1991. 

In 2002, Kagwe was elected as the fifth Member of Parliament for Mukurweini Constituency, Nyeri County a position he held until 2007. 

As a Member of Parliament, he was the Chair of Parliamentary Committee on Finance, Trade, Tourism and Planning, before his appointment as a Cabinet Minister for Information and Communications.

In 2013 he would be elected the first Senator of Nyeri County and went on to chair the Senate Committee on Information and Technology as well as serve on the Senate Committee of Finance and Budget and the Liaison Committee. 

On October 18, 2019, Energy CS Charles Keter appointed Kagwe to the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Commission (EPRA) board. He held the position until his nomination back into the Cabinet by President Kenyatta as CS for Health.

Betty Maina

Incoming Trade Cabinet Secretary Betty Maina has been majorly behind the limelight as she served in several ministries as a principal secretary.

Ms Maina graduated from the University of Nairobi with a BA in Land Economics before joining University College of London where she graduated with an MSc in Development Administration and Planning.

She brings in a wealth of experience as she has been in public service since 1994 when she was appointed as a gender advisor for the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands Programme and served in Keiyo and Marakwet districts.

She joined the Netherlands Development Organisation /SNV as a team leader until 1996.

She would leave both posts and become the Chief Executive at the Institute of Economic Affairs, a private-public policy think tank, for a period of six years from 1997 to 2003.

The new CS would go on to serve as the chief executive of the Kenya Association of Manufacturers for 11 years and at the same time, a director of the Anti Counterfeit  Agency.

In 2015 she would land a post in the President Kenyatta's administration as a PS at the State Department of East African Affairs.

Since then, she has served in the State Department of Investment and Industry, as well as the Ministry of Environment and Forestry before her nominations as Trade CS.