Monica Juma: A no-nonsense woman who has had the ears of three presidents on security

The appointment of former Cabinet minister Monica Juma as secretary of the National Security Council (NSC) is another crown in a career spanning three decades.

Dr Juma, who earned her PhD from Oxford University, has also worked with former presidents Mwai Kibaki and Uhuru Kenyatta. 

Her appointment this week to the NSC – a constitutional office President Kenyatta never filled in his 10-year rule – on top of her current role as President William Ruto’s National Security Adviser has placed Dr Juma at the centre of key security decisions at a time the President is stamping his authority in the country, region, Africa and the globe.

Chaired by the President, the NSC is a nine-member council and is the overall decision-making organ on security. It also has the deputy president, Interior, Defence and Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretaries as well as the Attorney-General, Chief of Kenya Defence Forces, National Intelligence Service Director and the Inspector-General of Police.

For Dr Juma, the NSC is her second home as she sat in the exclusive club for nearly seven years, first as Foreign Affairs CS and then as Defence minister. At the tail end of President Kenyatta’s second and last term, she was moved to the Ministry of Energy.

That she is one of only two CSs in the last regime who transitioned to President Ruto’s administration – the other being Mr Simon Chelugui – confirms Dr Juma’s centrality to the current administration’s security plan.

The daughter of a military officer, who grew up and went to schools around Gilgil in Nakuru County, never became a uniformed security officer. 

A highly regarded policy expert in African diplomatic circles, Dr Juma has earned a reputation as a behind-the-scenes player, always comfortable out of the limelight. 

Firm to the core

Many say she is brilliant and professional but “firm to the core”.

When Kenya faced increased threats from al-Shabaab in 2008, President Kibaki scouted for a technocrat who understood the security dynamics of the region, as the country’s ambassador to the AU).

At the time, Dr Juma was teaching at the University of Pretoria, South Africa, where she was a senior research fellow in the Department of Political Science.

Her previous work as a senior faculty member at the African Centre for Strategic Studies of the National Defence University in Washington, DC, made her the top candidate for the job that included pushing for improved continental defence protocols.

President Kibaki appointed Kenya’s Permanent Representative to the AU, based in Addis Ababa, but with added responsibilities of overseeing diplomatic missions in Ethiopia and Djibouti.

“Dr Juma served as Ambassador Extra-Ordinary to the Federal Republic of Ethiopia, the Republic of Djibouti and Permanent Representative of Kenya to the AU, Inter-Government Authority on Development (Igad) and UN Economic Commission for Africa, based out of Addis Ababa,” reads her biography on the Ministry of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs website.

In Addis Ababa, Dr Juma led AU teams that developed seminal peace and security policy documents on Africa.

She served on the UN Secretary General’s High-Level Panel on resourcing for the Security Council’s mandated AU peacekeeping operations and was named to the International Advisory Board of the UN University for Peace whose headquarters is in Costa Rica.

As Mr Kibaki was leaving office in 2013, the incoming Jubilee administration led by Mr Kenyatta and Dr Ruto – both facing crimes against humanity charges at the International Criminal Court –spotted Dr Juma for bigger roles.

Her diplomatic stature, experience, extensive contacts and particularly her grasp of geopolitics came in handy as Kenya embarked on a campaign to disentangle the Jubilee pair from ICC cases.

In May 2013, she was named Defence Principal Secretary. At this time, up until 2015, Kenya embarked on shuttle diplomacy on behalf of six people, including Mr Kenyatta and then deputy president Ruto, who was indicted for involvement in the 2007-8 post-election violence.

At the AU, President Kenyatta was relying on Dr Juma and her contacts there on a wide range of issues beyond the ICC shuttle diplomacy but touching on peace and security in the Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes region.

She proved herself as an indispensable force for the political establishment. At some point, Dr Juma almost succeeded in organising a continental walkout from the ICC. She, however, managed to rally the AU in demanding the withdrawal of Mr Kenyatta’s case.

At some point n August 2014, Dr Juma was moved to Harambee House as Interior PS. She continued coordinating the AU efforts here.

At Harambee House, Dr Juma led anti-terrorism efforts and initiated reforms and transformed the security policy, architecture and operations in the national administration, the Immigration and Registration of Person departments, as well as the National Police Service.

“She initiated plans that led to the adoption of Kenya’s strategy on counter-terrorism and violent extremism and creation of multi-agencies approach in tackling security challenges,” says an aide who worked with Dr Juma at the Office of the President. 

“These measures significantly reduced Kenya’s vulnerability to terrorist attacks and restored security across the country.”

Impressed with her work, President Kenyatta in 2015 named her to the powerful Secretary to the Cabinet but Parliament rejected the nomination, citing her Dr Juma’s “arrogance”.

From Kenya’s ambassador to Ethiopia, Igad and the AU, to PS Defence, PS Interior and presidential nominee to the Secretary to the Cabinet – all in two years – Dr Juma was deemed to have climbed the ladder too fast as MPs denied her the new promotion.

Mr Kenyatta later expressed disappointment, saying Parliament had denied him and the nation the service of an officer who would have been central to his transformational agenda.

“The President notes that the rejection of this nominee is the spurning of a public servant whose performance has consistently delivered professionalism, integrity and commitment to the duties of government and the well-being of Kenyans. In fact, the reasons cited by the Parliamentary Committee that vetted her, reflect her professional and correct demand that proper procedures be followed in...public services,” the statement said.

Appproved by PSs

But eve with the rejection on Secretary to the Cabinet role, Dr Juma was approved by MPs as PS in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a role she took up in January 2016. 

In the subsequent reshuffle after President Kenyatta's re-election, Dr Juma was in February 2018 promoted to Cabinet Secretary at the Foreign Affairs ministry where she began the drive to have Kenya serve in the UN Security Council.

According to one of her colleagues, Kiema Mwandia, the former CS brings value in the appointments due to her professionalism and brilliance.

“She is very well versed with the knowledge of security challenges facing Kenya, East Africa, the Great Lakes and Africa but is also firm in her decisions. Her work is devoid of partisan politics,” Mr Mwandia says.

Dr Juma’s value to President Ruto’s government may stem from the anti-ICC campaigns in Addis Ababa 10 years ago, her grasp of the region’s security architecture and extensive contacts.

Sources told the Sunday Nation that Dr Juma’s last assignment under Mr Kenyatta where she was tasked with restructuring the energy sector, specifically Kenya Power, impressed Dr Ruto. 

President Ruto is said to have been impressed by her firmness in doing the right things in the government departments and ministries she has served.

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