Dr Alfred Mutua’s public pronouncements and his tenure as Machakos County Governor came to haunt him during his vetting on Sunday as he faced a barrage of questions to set the record straight.
Dr Mutua, nominated by President William Ruto to be Labour and Social Protection, had a difficult time defending himself.
The nominee was specifically required to explain his association with the owner of a recruitment firm that saw Kenyans from Uasin Gishu lose millions of shillings in botched facilitation of employment and study opportunities abroad.
In 2023 Dr Mutua was also in the news for all the wrong reasons after he was faulted for announcing that foreign missions can engage directly with the government agencies.
Yesterday, Dr Mutua, who served as Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary, specifically distanced himself from the owner of a recruitment firm that saw Kenyans lose millions of shillings.
“I just met the lady, the owner of the recruitment firm at KICC. She had an exhibition stand next to our Foreign Affairs stand at KICC and when the president arrived, I just introduced her to the president not because I knew her,” Dr Mutua, who is worth Sh462 million said adding; “you realise that I didn’t know her name as I introduced her.”
This is after Uasin Gishu County Woman Representative Gladys Shollei demanded that he come clean on the matter.
During his vetting in 2022, Dr Mutua’s net worth was Sh420 million, meaning that he has accumulated Shat least Sh40 million for the 20 months and 11 days he served the government as a Cabinet Secretary.
He started off in the Foreign Affairs docket and then moved to the Tourism docket. On the issue of foreign missions dealing directly with government departments, Dr Mutua stated that it was about reducing the bureaucracies involved.
“It was about cutting the bureaucracies because it takes over two days to book an appointment for a 30-minute meeting,” he said.
Saboti MP Caleb Amisi accused Dr Mutua of making false promises to the Turkey government that Kenya will provide food and other donations to help the victims of the deadly earthquake that claimed so many lives.
In a message posted on one of his social media accounts, Dr Mutua, then as Foreign Affairs CS, gave the promise and claimed that the government had sent the donations, however, when told to prove that the donations had reached Turkey, he could not tell.
