Alfred Mutua
Alfred Nganga Mutua is a Kenyan journalist and politician who is serving as the Kenyan Minister for Labour and Social Protection, an appointment he received as part of the July/August 2024 cabinet reshuffle. He previously served as the Minister for Tourism and Wildlife. Before that he served as the Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs under President William Ruto. Mutua was, together with the entire Cabinet members, dismissed from the cabinet in July, 2024 as President William Ruto planned to reorganize his Government. He was one of only 10 of the dismissed members of Cabinet who were reappointed back into Cabinet. Twelve of the dismissed Cabinet members were not reappointed.
Before joining the government, Mutua served as the 1st Governor of Machakos County for two terms, from 2013 to 2017 and from 2018 to 2022. He was Kenya’s first Government Spokesman from June, 2004, during the Presidency of Mwai Kibaki, before resigning in 2012 to run for the Machakos County Gubernatorial seat. He is the founder of the Maendeleo Chap Chap Party which was established on 25 August 2016.
Early life and education
Mutua was born in Masii, Machakos County. He has lived, studied and worked in Kenya, the United States, Australia, and the United Arab Emirates, and has been a journalist, businessman, lecturer, civil servant, and politician.He was educated at Dagoretti High School and at Jamhuri High School. He obtained his Bachelor of Arts in journalism from Whitworth College and his Master of Science in communication from Eastern Washington University. He received his doctorate in communication and media from the University of Western Sydney in Australia.
Professional career
Journalism
Mutua began his career as a journalist while still in high school, publishing his first story in the daily newspapers at the age of 15. After high school, he wrote features for The Sunday Nation, The Standard newspaper, and the defunct Kenya Times Newspaper. In 1989, at the age of 19, he registered his first company Golden Dreams Company and started publishing a newsletter/magazine called Golden Times.While in the United States for further education, he published stories for several American newspapers and started video production work, producing "An African in America" documentary in 1996. He worked for several TV stations including PBS in Seattle, Washington. He later worked for Nation Media Group as a reporter and features writer from 1997.
Later in Australia, Mutua's works were published by The Sydney Morning Herald and worked as a foreign correspondent for SBS TV's international magazine show Dateline.
He also lectured at the University of Western Sydney, Macquarie University, and several TAFE colleges in Sydney. In 2002, he was poached from Sydney and moved to The United Arab Emirates as an assistant professor of Communication and Media at Zayed University. While in the UAE – Dubai and Abu Dhabi, he undertook research in the Middle East and travelled to Oman and Beirut, Lebanon to present papers and research on the use of media and communication for peace and development.
Starting in 1999, he wrote a popular weekly travel feature called "Msafiri" for the Friday edition of the Daily Nation Newspaper and became a contributor of opinion pieces for the Sunday Nation. In 2003, Mutua undertook consultancy work at the then Nation TV, training and assisting journalists transition to modern broadcasting standards as the station changed its name and look to NTV.
Media, film work, books and magazines
While in Dubai, Mutua continued producing films and, in 2002, he made "And the Desert Smiled," a film about always hoping and winning. Later on, in 2005, he revived his company Golden Dreams Company and made Kenya's first modern action TV series, "Cobra Squad," which gained a huge following in the region. He also produced other shows including "Beba Beba" and "How to be Rich in Africa".He published a fashion magazine called "PASSION" and wrote a book titled "How to be Rich in Africa and Other Secrets of Survival" among many other ventures that included the East African Music Awards in 2011.
He is also the Proprietor of Woni TV station and has diverse interests in the Hotel Industry, Aviation, and Real Estate.
Civil servant
Government spokesperson and public communications secretary
Mutua was appointed the first official government spokesperson of Kenya in June 2003 by the then President Mwai Kibaki and served in that capacity until 3 September 2012. He was also the public communications secretary and head of the Office of Public Communications in the Office of the President. He was charged with the duty of collecting information and analyzing events within the set-up of the government. Essentially, his work entailed communicating information to and from media, government ministries, state corporations and the public on behalf of his employer, the State. Under his stewardship in this office, Mutua established a public campaign initiative to promote Kenya's identity, image, culture, and pride among Kenyans and to encourage them to appreciate the positive attributes of their country. The campaign was dubbed "Najivunia Kuwa Mkenya".He is also remembered for running a Nairobi beautification program which included beautifying Uhuru Highway, repainting zebra crossings, installation of street CCTVs and most notably setting up a building address system in Nairobi CBD.
Mutua was also mandated with a couple of presidential tasks, among the notable ones was to chair a task force in charge of the candidacy of Mombasa to host the 2007 World Championships in Athletics.
Mutua served at a time when the country was undergoing major conflicts and scandals and he managed to raise the stature of the office by ensuring members of public and media had access to government information.
Having been dismissed as the cabinet secretary for tourism, Mutua was later nominated again by President Ruto as the cabinet secretary for Labour and Social Protection and is now awaiting vetting by the members of parliament.
Political career
In March 2013, Mutua was sworn in as the first governor of Machakos County, which is one of the 47 counties established under the Constitution of Kenya. He was elected on a Wiper Democratic Movement Party ticket alongside Bernard Kiala as his deputy governor.In August 2016, Mutua launched a political party called Maendeleo Chap Chap Party. This was a culmination of several months of speculation among the Kenyan media and general public that Mutua had abandoned Wiper Democratic Movement – the party that had sponsored him for his election as Machakos Governor in 2013. Mutua's action of launching and supporting a political party other than the one that sponsored him was considered controversial. He was expected to vacate office and seek a fresh mandate as Machakos County Governor; being sponsored by his new political party in line with Kenyan electoral laws. When Mutua did not vacate office to seek fresh re-election, Wiper Democratic Movement Party's disciplinary committee found him culpable of launching and supporting another political party. The disciplinary committee deemed him to have resigned from the party.
In November 2016, a notice to impeach Mutua was filed in the Machakos County Assembly by a member Mr. Stephen Muthuka. This was after the motion notice was signed by 46 out of 59 Machakos county assembly members – meeting the two-thirds threshold for an impeachment motion to progress. Included among the reasons for the impeachment motion was alleged breach of the Kenyan constitution, procurement laws and devolution laws.
Several days before Mutua's impeachment motion at the Machakos County Assembly, over half of the assembly's 59 members travelled out of the country in what was considered to be a tactical move for scuttling the impeachment process. In the absence of 32 members of the county assembly, the impeachment motion was debated with Mutua being represented by his lawyer. When the final vote was taken 26 out of 27 members of the assembly voted to impeach Mutua. This, however, was too few votes to legally impeach Mutua as Governor of Machakos County since the threshold of 40 members of the county assembly voting in favor of the motion was not attained.
2017 gubernatorial election
Mutua contested the Machakos County Governor position for a second and final term in the 2017 general election against Wavinya Ndeti and his former Deputy – Bernard Kiala. Mutua was declared the winner amid claims of election rigging which resulted in a protracted election petition process that saw high court judge Aggrey Muchelule annul Mutua's election. In June 2018, The court of appeal bench comprising judges W. Ouko, M. Warsame and S. Gatembu Kairu nullified the election of Alfred Mutua. Subsequently, Alfred Mutua contested the ruling of the Court of Appeal at the Supreme Court. This legal contest was considered an epic battle at the Kenyan apex court. The Supreme Court of Kenya would later on 21 December 2018, overturn the Court of Appeal ruling to reinstate Mutua's gubernatorial election win.Stewardship of public funds
Though Mutua's stewardship of public funds as Governor for Machakos County saw the Auditor General raise numerous queries on the propriety of public expenditure throughout his first term, it turned out that his strategy of fiscal management was one of the best in the government. For example, in 2014, he chose to purchase second hand vans and retrofitted them into ambulances which enabled him to have 120 ambulances at the cost of a few new ones. This got him into trouble with the Auditor General, but was a big win for Machakos residents who got at least one ambulance in every location.In the years 2015, 2019 and 2020, Mutua was ranked the best-performing governor in Kenya. In 2015, a survey carried out to measure the successes of county government in satisfying their constituents also ranked Mutua's Machakos the best.