Uhuru kin named to exports agency board

Industry and Trade Secretary Peter Munya has appointed President Uhuru Kenyatta’s cousin Kathleen Kihanya to be a board member of the Kenya Export Promotion and Branding Agency.

“The Cabinet Secretary for Industry, Trade and Co-operatives appoints Jacqueline Muga, Kathleen Kihanya, Mark Bichachi, to be members of the Kenya Export Promotion and Branding Agency Board, for a period of three years, with effect from August 9, 2019,’ said Mr Munya in the gazette notice on Friday.

Appointee Mark Bichachi is a communications strategist, political commentator and newspaper columnist.

Ms Kihanya also runs Aces Ahead, a public relations and marketing consultancy.

Last September, she kicked off a storm over ownership of prime land on which developer Banda Homes was putting up a Sh1 billion estate for sale.

She claimed Banda Homes had misled potential buyers on the land, a claim the firm strongly disputed, saying it had purchased the land from another Kenyatta kin, Kamau Ngengi.

Separately, Sundales International Limited - a firm in which she shares directorship with Mr Kenyatta’s sister Nyokabi Kenyatta Muthama - was in the eye if a storm 3 years ago when it was found that it had been listed among companies that should get preferential treatment for tenders reserved for the youth, women and the disabled.

The three appointees will be joining the State agency, which was formed by merging the boards of the Export Promotion Council and Brand Kenya.

The establishment of the agency is in line with an earlier presidential directive on the key objective of the integrated National Exports Development and Promotion Strategy, which the government launched mid last year, and aims at growing Kenya’s exports at an average rate of 25 percent per annum.