OPIYO WANDAYI
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 22, 1972 |
| GENDER | Male |
| OCCUPATION | Politician |
Biography
Opiyo Wandayi is the Cabinet Secretary (CS) for Energy & Petroleum. Prior to his appointment, Wandayi served as the National Assembly Minority Leader.
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.
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).
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).
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