The Ministry of Roads and Transport Cabinet Secretary (CS) nominee Davis Kimutai Chirchir has declared his Net Worth.
Chirchir while speaking before the National Assembly Committee on Appointments on Friday, August 2, 2024, announced that he is worth Ksh509.8 million.
According to Chirchir, he has amassed a total amount of about Ksh27.6 million since his last vetting for the Energy ministry in October 2022, an increase from the Ksh.482 million he disclosed back then.
“I have seen it chair it is Ksh509, 800, 000. I think that there has been a slight growth of about 27.6 million,” stated Chirchir.
Upon declaring his wealth, National Assembly Majority leader Kimani Ichung’wah questioned his net worth pointing out that one of the properties he had listed as being worth Ksh95 million in Spring Valley, Nairobi, is actually worth a lot more than that.
“In his statement of net worth, he has put up a house in Spring Valley valued at Ksh95 million, is this a historical valuation? posed Ichung’wah.
The former Ministry of Energy CS explained that it was indeed a historical valuation, adding that he has not had a chance to revalue the asset which he said he acquired at about Ksh9 million.
Chirchir was not widely known till his 2013 nomination and subsequent appointment as CS for Energy and Petroleum during the tenure of former President Uhuru Kenyatta.
The rise of Davis Chirchir to become CS
Prior to the nomination, the 64-year-old Information Technology (IT) expert was among the founder members of President William Ruto‘s now-defunct United Republican Party (URP), together with former Energy CS Charles Keter.
Also Read: Man Blasts CS Chirchir After Kenya Power Blocks Him
The nomination, therefore, did not come as a surprise, given that it is Ruto who even proposed his nomination to the same position in the Jubilee government Cabinet after the 2013 General Election.
Before being appointed as a CS, the 64-year-old started his career in 1985 at the defunct Kenya Posts & Telecommunications Corporation (KPTC) as a tele-traffic engineer where he handled management of traffic engineering in telecommunication.
Chirchir quickly rose through the ranks to become the general manager for technical services in the telecommunications department, a position he held until the corporation was broken into three separate entities under a restructuring and privatization program in the late 1990s.
Out of KPTC was born Kenya Postal Corporation or Posta, the telecoms firm Telkom Kenya and the telecoms sector regulator then called the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK), now the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA).
These changes left Chirchir in Telkom Kenya where he worked for a number of years as a senior manager.
Stint at Telkom, IIEC & URP
Upon leaving Telkom Kenya, Chirchir briefly stayed out of public limelight until May 2009. He re-emerged as a commissioner in the Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC) that was formed following the disbandment of the Electoral Commission of Kenya.
Chirchir while at the polls body cut out an image of a political operative and a technically savvy professional to boot which left him as a front-runner for top positions after former President Kenyatta and his then Deputy William Ruto won the 2013 General Election.
Prior to the elections, Chirchir had been named as the Secretary General of the now defunct URP when it was founded in 2012, with President Ruto listed as its leader.
Also Read: President William Ruto Dissolves Cabinet
His closeness to Ruto meant there was little surprise when he was named in the list of Cabinet secretaries and given the lucrative Energy docket.
However, Davis Chirchir left the Energy ministry in controversial circumstances in 2015 after serving as CS for only two years.
He was suspended from office in March 2015 alongside Michael Kamau (Transport), Felix Koskei (Agriculture), and Kazungu Kambi (Labour).
Education and Nomination as CS
Chirchir holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in International Management from the Royal Holloway School of Management, University of London.
He also holds a Postgraduate Diploma in tele-Traffic Engineering from the University of Nairobi (UoN), and a bachelor’s degree in computer science and physics from the institution where he graduated in 1985.
Chirchir was appointed as the Energy and Petroleum CS in 2022 but was dismissed again from his position alongside other CSs in June 2024.
Before former President Ruto nominated him as a CS for Energy, he was one of the most conspicuous politicians at State House functions.
Ruto had appointed Chirchir as the Chief of Staff in the Office of the Deputy President before the 2022 General Election following the death of Ken Osinde.
Chirchir has now been nominated to become the Ministry of Roads CS and is set to replace his fellow Cabinet nominee Kipchumba Murkomen, in the docket.
On the other hand, his former Energy ministry post is set to be assumed by another Cabinet nominee, Ugunja Member of Parliament (MP) Opiyo Wandayi.
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