Faith Njeri Harrison's appointment on Tuesday, May 16, as the Performance Management principal Secretary at the Office of the Prime Cabinet Secretary has raised eyebrows.
Harrison was appointed to the position by President William Ruto with instructions to facilitate the transition of the vacancy within the ranks of the principal secretaries
Kenyans, however, questioned the appointment of the PS unearthing her involvement in past cases with authorities.
Harrison, who was once the Chief Finance Officer of Kiambu County, was in April 2019 arrested by officers drawn from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations(DCI) for being in possession of cash and US dollars.
In an earlier DCI statement, Harrison and another employee of Kiambu County had been accused of manipulating vehicle registration numbers.
"Detectives yesterday intercepted a Motor Vehicle along Mpaka Road in Parklands on suspicion of having Fake registration numbers and arrested two suspects; Ms Faith Harrison and Mr Harrison Kungu. Documents in their possession showed different registration.
"A quick search of the vehicle recovered cash, several US Dollars. The two suspects both denied that they owned the cash that was found in the vehicle," the DCI statement read in part.
Additionally, Harrison was also linked to a case that led to the impeachment of former Kiambu Governor Ferdinand Waititu.
In July 2019, she was arrested while addressing a congregation at a hotel where she exposed the Kiambu County Government's flaws.
At the time, she had resigned twice in two weeks citing the former governor's continued dictatorship tendencies to control all departments in the county government.
"The Finance department is in charge of all county public property." Many of the properties, including staff quarters and quarries, have been sold to private individuals. We can't work this way," she lamented at the time.
When Waititu was impeached by the Senate in 2020 because of a graft case where he was accused of misappropriating Ksh588 million, he blamed Harrison.
The former governor argued that the former Kiambu Finance Chief Officer Faith Njeri Harrison was among county officials who carried out the transactions that landed him in court.
Harrison's appointment came after Ruto fired Health PS Josephine Mburu over the alleged impropriety within the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (KEMSA), with the Ksh3.7 billion anti-mosquito nets scandal attracting global attention.
At the same time, he dissolved the entire KEMSA board and appointed Irungu Nyakera as the new board chairperson.
