By Martin Masai
Machakos Governor Wavinya Ndeti on Wednesday night dramatically fired her Finance, Economic Planning, and Revenue Management CECM Onesmus Muia Kuyu in a sweeping cabinet reshuffle seeking to recalibrating her embattled administration.
In a circular dated September 11, 2025, and released close to midnight by the County Secretary Dr MuyaNdambuki, Kuyu was moved from the powerful finance docket to head the Water, Irrigation, Sanitation, Environment and Climate Change portfolio.
In his place, the governor appointed Catherine Mutanu Raphael — herself a controversial figure who previously presided over the agriculture docket and before that the water ministry, where a Kes 300 million dams scandal remains unresolved.
Rita Ndunge Ndunda, who had been in charge of water for hardly a month, was transferred to the agriculture docket in a three-way swap that signals deeper turbulence inside the county executive.
This reshuffle is the latest in a string of combative actions by Governor Wavinya Ndeti over the past two months as she fights to shore up her government’s image amid scandals, strikes, and intense scrutiny from oversight bodies.
Just last week, she announced the suspension of 36 revenue clerks accused of fiddling with county finances — a move insiders say was triggered by Kuyu’s own defense over falsified accounting in the revenue department.
That purge came days after another batch of receipt officers was interdicted by the County Secretary Dr. Muya Ndambuki, a purge that targeted lower-level staff but left senior figures untouched.
The governor has also been under siege from multiple fronts — the Controller of Budget’s blistering letters on questionable budget practices, a standoff with the Machakos County Assembly Speaker over oversight, and twin strikes by nurses and doctors over unpaid benefits and delayed promotions.
Mutanu’s redeployment to finance is likely to stoke controversy, given her own record.
She was the minister in charge when the county’s water docket became embroiled in the KSh 80 million dam scandal — an affair that has yet to be resolved or fully explained.
Analysts note that moving her into finance could be seen as doubling down rather than cleaning house.
By shuffling Kuyu out of finance, Wavinya appears to be isolating a key ally, whose failures the governor has underwritten in her last three years as governor.
It is a result of a recent confrontation between Kuyu, his revenue team on the one side, and his finance chief officer, Mr Kasanga, on the other over falsified figures.
But critics argue that the reshuffle simply shifts the same faces around without addressing systemic rot in the administration’s finances, procurement, and service delivery.
With strikes crippling health services, oversight battles intensifying, and donor-funded water projects stalled, the move may buy the governor short-term breathing space but also raises questions about her long-term governance strategy.
