In Late November, President Uhuru Kenyatta reshuffled the Cabinet, which saw new members join the Cabinet. Among those who joined the Cabinet included Joe Mucheru to serve as the ICT cabinet secretary after Fred Matiang’i. Joe has a quite impressive CV, from founding Wananchi Online, one of the first internet entities in Kenya, taking several caps at Google to being an Angel investor to some of Kenya’s successful startups like Wezatele5, Bitpesa1 and Valuraha5.
Joe Mucheru was vetted last week by Parliament as is required by the law for all nominees to serve in the Cabinet. During the vetting, the nominee was asked about the proposal to split Telco Safaricom into several units as was suggested by Airtel Kenya, CA and backed by former CS Fred Matiang’i. He opposed the proposed split but instead encouraged the sharing of spectrum and infrastructure besides seeking to create open platforms to promote competition and transparency in the ICT sector.
On the proposed construction of the Konza City Technopolis, the nominee proposed instituting robust and favorable legislative framework to encourage investment. On the state of National Broadcaster KBC, Joe suggested the sale of prime land held by the broadcaster to facilitate its modernization and pay debts owed. He further suggested some of the equipment held at its facilities relocates to Konza City and the land put to good use with the private sector. With regards to the education sector, the nominee suggested emphasis ought to be on content rather than equipment.
Source: Standard Investment Bank
