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Former Foreign and Diaspora Affairs Cabinet Secretary Alfred Mutua on Tuesday, October 17, 2023, formally handed over the docket to his successor Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi two weeks after President William Ruto’s expanded the latter’s portfolio.

Mutua handed over the reins of the ministry at a brief ceremony held at the Prime Cabinet Secretary’s office at Railways Headquarters in Nairobi.

During the event, Mutua, who now heads the Tourism and Wildlife docket, took a moment to detail his achievements in the eleven months that he was at the helm of the Ministry of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs.

According to the CS, he had the privilege of advancing Kenya’s national interests in the international arena by enhancing strategic bilateral and multilateral partnerships, including reigniting friendships with countries in the Global South.

Mutua said the ministry had also worked tirelessly to champion issues of Peace, Security, as well as sustainable Development at the continental level, in the spirit of positive Pan-Africanism.

He detailed that his ministry had worked diligently to promote Kenya’s Economic Diplomacy, Cultural Diplomacy, and Environmental Diplomacy, as exemplified by the hosting of a successful 5th Mid-Year Coordination Meeting of the African Union in July of this year, and the Africa Climate Summit last month.

“In the last one year our Foreign Policy has been guided by the need to empower the Kenyan people. Many of you have asked whether our policy is East or West leaning. I have previously said that our policy is WORLD leaning for the benefit of our people,” he said.

Visa-free initiative

At the same time, Mutua noted that Kenya’s visa-free initiative for Kenyans travelling to South Africa, DRC, Senegal, Eritrea and Congo Brazzaville had created opportunities for business communities.

Mutua indicated that his ministry engaged in several programs to deliver on the Kenya Kwanza administration’s bottom-up economic transformation agenda.

“We continued to align our work plans to resonate with the Bottom-up economic transformation agenda (BETA) as per the pillars of Kenya Kwanza, namely Agriculture, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), Housing and settlement, Healthcare, Digital superhighway and creative economy and Environment and climate change.

“Due to our continued engagements, Moderna will set up a USD 500 million manufacturing plant in Tatu city to produce pharmaceuticals and vaccines for Kenya and Africa. The factory will have capacity to produce 500 million doses of vaccines per year as well as other pharmaceuticals, thus creating jobs and earn the country the much needed forex,” he said.

During his reign, Mutua said, he led the ministry to operationalise the State Department of Diaspora Affairs, which is working tirelessly to enhance the welfare of Kenyans in Diaspora.

“These great achievements would not have been possible without the support of my dedicated staff at the Ministry led by the highly professional and experienced leadership team consisting of Dr. Korir Sing’oei, Principal Secretary, State Department for Foreign Affairs and Ms. Roseline NJOGU, Principal Secretary for Diaspora Affairs,” the CS said further acknowledging support from foreign envoys and missions.

Mutua also expressed his confidence in Mudavadi steering the ministry in the right direction.

On his part, Mudavadi pledged to build on the work that Mutua began at the ministry in a bid to advance the country’s growth and development.

“I will leverage our position as guarantor of regional peace. I will pursue free trade area and other regional economic blocks,” Mudavadi said.

“Whenever any Kenyan in the diaspora will be in distress, we deploy diplomatic tools to ensure the protection of our people.”