Before his recent appointment to the KCB Group board, speculation had been rife that President William Ruto was considering former head of public service Joseph Kinyua for a senior State House role to tap into his vast wealth of knowledge and experience in statecraft.
Others even suggested that the man described by one of his former colleagues in public service as the 'quintessential bureaucrat' worked behind the scenes for the current President.
As it were, Mr Kinyua is headed to the board of KCB — the region's largest bank by asset size — where the government could still find his famed Midas touch useful.
The Treasury owns a 19.76 percent stake in the bank, which when combined with National Social Security Fund's (NSSF) shareholding increases the government’s ownership to 28.15 percent.
Reports last week showed the Treasury triggered the ouster of two directors at KCB Group and the elevation of Mr Kinyua in a boardroom shake-up aimed at asserting the influence of the Ruto administration.
A career civil servant, Mr Kinyua has spent his working life in public service save for a short stint at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington, USA.
After a stint as an assistant lecturer at the University of Nairobi in 1978, he joined the Central Bank of Kenya as a chief economist two years later.
He would rise through the ranks to serve as a permanent secretary in the ministries of Finance, National Planning and Agriculture, a chief of staff in the Uhuru Kenyatta State House and the Head of Public Service.
During his four decades in public service, he served four administrations.
As the Head of Public Service in the previous administration, Mr Kinyua took instructions directly from the President.
He ran the Cabinet Office which communicated executive decisions and handled the critical docket of supervision and coordination of ministries and departments even as he maintained a critical link with the public.
Officially, he was the Secretary to the Cabinet. People understood his word as that of the President.
In 2021, his relationship with Dr Ruto, then Deputy President, appeared to be tested by an incident in which the latter was blocked at a Nairobi airport from flying out to Uganda.
Dr Ruto's communication team said he had been asked by officials at Wilson Airport to seek clearance from Mr Kinyua before he could take the trip.
However, Mr Kinyua's appointment to the KCB board in the wake of a recent purge of Kenyatta-era directors in companies where the State has a stake suggests that he remains in the good books of the current administration.
So how has the economist managed to play pivotal moments in four administrations?
People close to him say he is a hardworking and pragmatic civil servant every administration would want to work with.
Nzioka Waita, the former State House Chief of Staff described Mr Kinyua as the “quintessential bureaucrat.”
“A great man, a wonderful mentor and a hilarious storyteller,” said Mr Waita in a past Tweet.
Gerrishon Ikiara, the former Permanent Secretary for Transport in President Mwai Kibaki’s government, says Mr Kinyua is a man who does his homework well.
“He has a clean record. I know him personally over the years and I can vouch for his integrity and hard work,” said Dr Ikiara, who worked with Mr Kinyua both at the University of Nairobi and the government.
Dr Ikiara and Mr Kinyua served on the board of the national carrier Kenya Airways during the same period. At the time, Mr Kinyua represented the Treasury as its PS while Dr Ikiara represented the Transport ministry.
“His interventions were very sound and well-thought-out,” remembers Dr Ikiara.
Mr Kinyua, 70, is eligible to serve KCB for up to eight years, going by the group’s board charter which allows non-executive directors to hold office for a cumulative term not exceeding eight years.
But it is Mr Kinyua’s macro-economic achievements when he was the Treasury Permanent Secretary that excites KCB the most.
“He is credited with effectively holding a pivotal role in implementing key initiatives and reforms including the liberalisation of the banking sector, the foreign exchange market and the trade and capital accounts of the balance of payments among other initiatives,” said KCB.
Mr Kinyua brings to the KCB board, years of experience and contacts with key people, locally and internationally. He also has institutional memory, a sharp antenna for economic issues, and experience dealing with and engaging assertive shareholders.
Mr Kinyua has an intimate understanding of the budget process and has spearheaded the transition to the Medium Term Expenditure Framework budgeting system.
He understands monetary policy and the inner workings of the Central Bank of Kenya where he served for many years as Director of Research.
He is taking over the critical role at a time of tectonic shifts, with a new administration that expects and wants the bank to play a more ‘developmental’ role in society, including support for a massive fertiliser and food imports programme.
