The Ministry of Energy & Petroleum Cabinet Secretary (CS) nominee James Opiyo Wandayi has declared his Net Worth.
Opiyo Wandayi while speaking on Saturday, August 3, 2024, before the National Assembly’s Committee on Appointments chaired by Speaker Moses Wetang’ula announced that he is worth Ksh530 million.
The former National Assembly Minority Leader said his wealth is majorly made up of Real Estates, farms, and residential houses.
“My net worth is about Ksh530,000,000. Well, it is largely a little bit of cash, Real Estate….I have a lot of interest in Real Estate, and also farms, I have farms all over honorable Speaker, in Siaya….I also have a farm in Narok, I have got some plots in Kitengela, in Migori,” stated Opiyo Wandayi.
Wandayi further disclosed that he owns residential houses in both Migori and Nairobi Counties.
President William Ruto nominated James Opiyo Wandayi, who is the current Ugunja Member of Parliament (MP), as the CS for the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum.
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President Ruto announced Wandayi as a nominee for the Energy CS slot on Wednesday, July 24, 2024, during a state of the nation address at State House Nairobi.
Opiyo Wandayi was among four Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party stalwarts who were announced by the Head of State as nominees for different ministries.
The Rise of Opiyo Wandayi to Become Minority Leader
Prior to his nomination as a CS, Wandayi held the role of the leader of the minority party in the National Assembly, a position he has since resigned from following his nomination.
The CS nominee first joined Parliament in 2013 when he was elected as a first-time lawmaker representing Ugunja Constituency, a position he successfully defended consecutively in both 2017 and 2022.
Wandayi served as the chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) between 2017 and 2022, and led the team interrogate use of public funds by the National Government, the Judiciary, Constitutional commissions and independent offices.
On the other hand, he has been a member of different Parliamentary Committees including Departmental Committee on Administration and National Security (2016-2017), and Departmental Committee on Agriculture (2013-2017).
Opiyo Wandayi has also been a member of the Departmental Committee on Environment and Natural Resources between 2013 and 2017.
Prior to joining politics in 2013, Wandayi had extensive experience in strategic and operational management, where between 1998 and 2012, he held core management positions in the private sector within and outside Kenya at the British American Tobacco (BAT).
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The Ministry of Energy CS nominee started as a junior official working as an extensional officer at BAT but rose steadily through the ranks with his last role being the Lead, Business Sustainability Manager, responsible for Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Educational Background
Wandayi is a graduate of the University of Nairobi (UoN) where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture, specializing in Agricultural Economics in 1996.
He also has a master’s in business administration (MBA) from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) and a diploma in Business Management from the Kenya Institute of Management (KIM).
Recently, the former National Assembly Minority Leader obtained a Bachelor of Laws degree from Daystar University.
If approved by Parliament, Wandayi will be replacing former Energy CS Davis Chirchir whose name was also among a list of people announced by President Ruto as nominees for different ministries.
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