This man Felix Koskei: The rise of President Ruto's new 'Mr Fix It'

You need to be in touch with what is happening in your docket. You need to have facts at your fingertips. You break a sweat out of fear that something might be happening without your knowledge.

Whereas that might be an exaggeration of the powers wielded by Mr Koskei, it speaks to the “prefect” role the career civil servant is playing in the administration and his reshaping of the powerful position.

As per President Ruto’s Executive Order Number 1 of 2023, Mr Koskei has five official duties, with the sixth being any role that may be assigned by the President.

Recent happenings suggest a gradual elevation beyond those five.

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September was one of Mr Koskei’s busiest months. He had at least nine public engagements, issued at least two directives with far-reaching consequences, one of them being his intervention on the matter of suspending water agency bosses in what looked like bypassing the then Water Cabinet Secretary Alice Wahome.

Many of the publicly released statements and letters from his office, including the cabinet reshuffle and new appointments this week, are done on behalf of the president.

Two years older than Dr Ruto, and having studied the same undergraduate degree (botany and zoology) at the same institution (the University of Nairobi), Mr Kokei becoming a powerful man in the government circles is a surprise to some but hardly to those who know how in sync he is with Dr Ruto.

The Nation spoke to multiple sources regarding Mr Koskei’s role and growing influence.

An aide of Mr Koskei’s, who spoke to the Nation in confidence, said the man is adopting new tactics to counter new challenges that may not have been present with the previous holders; and that he is staying in touch with Dr Ruto’s active schedule by also being an active participant in events across the country.

A former holder of that office said Mr Koskei is very much at par with his role thus far.  More on that later.

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Among those bothered by Mr Koskei’s recent directives is National Assembly Minority Leader Opiyo Wandayi who, in an address in Parliament last week, took offence with the former’s circular on the number of people who can travel for foreign engagements and the number of days they can spend there.

“The upshot of this circular is that the author is purporting to direct various persons and office holders on how to spend monies that this House has appropriated, including Parliament, the Auditor-General, and the Controller of Budget,” said Mr Wandayi. “The author purports to direct that delegations headed by governors of county governments shall not exceed three persons…  No person under the sun can direct this House, the Judiciary, governors how to spend monies that have been appropriated.”

Holders of the Head of Public Service office have always been powerful. However, the fact that Mr Koskei has been calling in-person meetings with various groups to give directives – often in the absence of the Cabinet Secretary in charge of the docket – and also that in some instances he has visited State corporations and agencies on his own accompanied by strong public statements show marked difference from previous office holders.

As per the executive order issued in January, Mr Koskei’s first role is to be the administrative head of the Executive Office of the President. The second function is supporting the President in facilitating the organisation and efficient execution of government business through his duty as the convenor of principal secretaries’ committees.

The third role is promoting ethics, good governance, efficiency and effectiveness in the provision of public services “through the deployment of right skills, values and leadership in the Kenyan public service”.

The fourth role is transmitting orders and proclamations by the President to ministries and other State organs for action while the fifth role makes Mr Koskei the custodian of the Kenyan public seal and other instruments of the State.

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In the January executive order, Mr Koskei’s office was listed fourth after that of the President, his deputy and the Prime Cabinet Secretary. Coming after him was the office of the Secretary to the Cabinet, then the State House Comptroller and finally the Deputy Chief of Staff.

Former State officials Francis Kimemia and Franklin Bett told the Sunday Nation that the position is the engine driving ministries and all State organs.

Mr Kimemia, the Nyandarua Governor between 2017 and 2022, was the Head of Public Service during the reign of President Mwai Kibaki. He said the holder of the office literally runs the government on behalf of the President. Mr Kimemia said the cardinal role of Head of Public Service is to make sure the government succeeds “by hook or crook”.

“The holder of the office is the most powerful person in public service. The person literally runs the day-to-day operations of the government,” said Mr Kimemia. “It is like you are the heart of the President. Every statement the President makes in public, you turn them into policies. During my time in the position, I was always taking notes every time the President stood to speak.”

Defending Mr Koskei over the criticism by Mr Wandayi, Mr Kimemia noted that the memo on travel did not come out of nowhere.

“Most of the circulars are done on the directive of the President. We are not a federal government but a unitary one. I see no problem with the directive because it is about public expenditure. Counties are financed by the national government and the President has to ensure there is order,” he said.

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In another circular dated April 3, Mr Koskei directed CSs and PSs to seek clearance with his office before appointing or renewing appointments of Chief Executive Officers in various parastatals.

During Mr Kibaki’s tenure, Mr Kimemia said, the President rarely engaged his ministers directly. Any time the President wanted a brief from a minister, it would be communicated through Mr Kimemia to arrange for a meeting with all relevant officials.

Mr Kimemia, who also served as Secretary to the Cabinet during the tenure of President Uhuru Kenyatta, described Mr Koskei’s as “everything in government”.

“Such a person must be a team player because the work entails coordinating and supervising public service. ,” he said.

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Mr Bett, who was at one time the State House Comptroller under President Daniel arap Moi, described the office as the link between the President and the entire government. He recalled instances when ministers had to book appointments with the office before they could have a meeting with the President.

“For a cabinet minister to reach the president, he or she has to call the office to share the agenda. The office is as powerful as the holder can make it. People like Simeon Nyachae and Jeremiah Kiereini who served in the position during Mzee Moi’s tenure were very powerful individuals,” he said.

“In the management of public affairs, the Head of Public Service is in the immediate position of advising the President. The position needs a seasoned career civil servant; preferably someone who was in the provincial administration,” said Mr Bett, noting that the office requires a lot of care and consistency.

An aide of Mr Koskei said his boss’s strategy aligns with that of the President.

“The President is somebody who goes out daily, and is in the public eye almost every day. And so, Mr Koskei is basically walking in the President’s footsteps,” said the aide. “A lot of people are saying that his modus operandi is very new to them, but they kind of like it.”

Mr Koskei’s recent engagements include a consultative meeting with the Parliamentary Audit Committee on September 8; a meeting with the governance group of heads of mission to Nairobi (September 13), a meeting with accounting officers of ministries, state departments, and independent commissions (September 14); a meeting with more than 400 national government administration officers (September 15), presiding over the launch of the Electronic Power of Mercy Petitions Management and Information System (September 20); a meeting with principal secretaries, chairpersons and CEOs of state corporations, chairpersons of audit committees and heads of internal audit units (September 21) and a September 29 meeting with the leadership of the National Police Service.

“Public service has so many things, the police and all,” said the aide. “The entirety of the public service is in his hands, including TSC and all teachers, universities, name them.”

The aide noted that there are days Mr Koskei and Dr Ruto communicate hourly. “There is a lot of interaction and information flowing from the public servants on what is happening, which again he transmits to the President,” the aide said.

Mr Koskei was thrust into the national limelight in May 2013 when President Uhuru Kenyatta nominated him Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture, Fisheries and Livestock. Prior to that, he served in several public corporations, commissions and parastatals, including Kenya Posts and Telecommunications Corporation, Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission, Kenya Civil Aviation Authority and Kenya National Highways Authority.

He served in the Cabinet until 2015 when he left after his name was featured in the “List of Shame”. He was eventually acquitted in 2018. He unsuccessfully vied for the Nandi governor seat in 2017. As the Agriculture CS, one of his initiatives was the Galana Kulalu agriculture project that he spent many hours defending in the media.

By the look of things, the “Mr Fix It” in Dr Ruto’s government is packaged in the form of a soft-spoken man expunged from a list of shame not too long ago.

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