President William Ruto has announced a new round of appointments to key state agencies in a bid to streamline governance and enhance oversight within parastatals. The latest changes, published in a Kenya Gazette notice, take effect on May 16, 2025, and involve a strategic reshuffle of senior board leadership.
In a notable swap, former Kericho Deputy Governor Lily Ng’ok has been moved from her position as Chairperson of the Kenya Industrial Estates (KIE) and appointed as the Non-Executive Chairperson of the Board of the Information and Communications Technology Authority (ICTA). She will serve a three-year term.
Replacing Ng’ok at KIE is Slyvanus Maritim, who until now served as Chairperson of the ICTA board. Maritim, a seasoned telecommunications engineer with experience across several African countries including Kenya and Djibouti, brings considerable expertise to the role. His appointment to KIE is also for a period of three years.
The two leaders previously assumed their respective roles in February 2023, when President Ruto initiated his first major overhaul of state corporations, replacing several appointees of his predecessor, former President Uhuru Kenyatta. The current reshuffle is viewed as a continuation of Ruto’s broader agenda to ensure efficiency and alignment with his administration’s development priorities.
In a separate appointment, Professor Lawrence Gumbe of the University of Nairobi has been named the Non-Executive Chairperson of the Board of the Nuclear Power and Energy Agency. Prof. Gumbe will serve a four-year term. His appointment signals the administration’s commitment to strengthening Kenya’s energy sector amid growing interest in nuclear energy as a sustainable power source.
These latest appointments reflect President Ruto’s focus on professionalising state agency leadership, with a mix of political and technocratic figures tasked with steering parastatals toward improved service delivery. Notably, the new officeholders’ terms extend past the 2027 general election, underscoring a long-term approach to institutional stability and performance.
The reshuffle is expected to inject new energy into the affected agencies, aligning them more closely with Kenya’s development goals under the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda.
