President William Samoei Ruto retained two cabinet secretaries who served in the Uhuru Kenyatta administration while unveiling his Cabinet on Tuesday, September 27.
Simon Chelugui and Ambassador Monica Juma were appointed to serve as the CS for Cooperatives and advisor to the national security council respectively.
However, Interior CS Fred Matiang'i and his education counterpart, George Magoha were dropped. The former crossed paths with Ruto and his allies several times, while the latter who was quite engrossed with his duties was rejected despite expressing interest in retaining his role.
Juma was one of Uhuru's loyalists who served in different capacities. She was first appointed to serve as the CS for foreign affairs in 2018.
Two years later, in 2020, she replaced Raychelle Omamo as the CS for Defence before being appointed to head the Energy docket in 2021.
Earlier this year, she withdrew her candidature from the race for the secretary general position of the Commonwealth citing division.
Chelugui on the other hand served as the CS for Water in Uhuru Kenyatta's government before being transferred to the Labour and Social Protection docket.
The University of Nairobi (UoN) alumni boasts of over twenty years of experience in technical policies, policy formulation and corporate governance.
He is also a recipient of the Elder of the Golden Heart (EGH), awarded for exemplary service and stewardship.
Other than Chelugui and Omamo, Ruto also retained former Foreign Affairs CAS Ababu Namwamba, promoting him to head the Sports docket.
Namwamba was tasked with the responsibility of streamlining the ailing sports sector with Kenya currently serving a ban from the world football governing body FIFA.
The proposed cabinet secretaries will be vetted by Parliament before being sworn into office. They will be vetted by the Kenyan Parliament.
