Central Bank of Kenya’s (CBK) current head of bank supervision, Gerald Nyaoma, has been tapped to fill the position of the apex bank’s second deputy governor in a move to comply with a legal requirement.
President William Ruto’s appointment extends Mr Nyaoma’s stay at the CBK where he has had a 36-year run as a career banker.
He assumes the second deputy governor’s post at the apex bank, joining Susan Koech who was appointed on March 10 last year, in compliance with a legal statute that requires that the executive team at CBK be composed of the governor and two deputies.
“Mr Nyaoma has previously held various positions within the CBK, including director of financial markets development, director of banking services, acting director of the internal audit department, and senior manager of national payment services department, among others,” head of public service Felix Koskei wrote in a Tuesday notice.
The nominee, who holds a Master of Philosophy in economics from the University of Cambridge in the UK, also sits on the board of the Sacco Societies Regulatory Authority (SASRA) as an alternate member to the governor.
Nyaoma won the race against five other shortlisted contenders, including outgoing Higher Education Loans Board chief executive Charles Ringera and CBK head of external sector and fiscal analysis Dulacha Barako.
Others were former Kenya Bankers Association CEO Habil Olaka, Commission for Revenue Allocation (CRA) commissioner Jane Kiringai, as well as Florence Kinyanzui, business manager for markets in the East Africa region at Standard Chartered Bank.
Before Ms Koech’s appointment last year, former President Uhuru Kenyatta ignored calls to the banking industry regulator to have two deputy governors during his 10-year tenure, prompting the Auditor-General to raise queries on the legal breach.
Koech’s appointment also came at a time when the CBK was rushing to dodge a leadership vacuum in the face of the expiring tenures of former governor Patrick Njoroge and his then-sole deputy Sheila M’Mbijjewe.
Ms M’Mbijjewe had been CBK’s only deputy governor since June 2015 and was re-appointed for a final four-year stint that ran concurrently with that of Dr Njoroge until June 17, 2023.
The country briefly had two deputy governors in 2015 when Ms M’Mbijjewe served with Haron Sirima, who quit the CBK in October 2015.
Dr Sirima served as the assistant to Prof Njuguna Ndung’u—immediate former Treasury Cabinet secretary—whose term as CBK governor lapsed in March 2015.
Dr Sirima is the immediate former director-general of the Public Debt Management Office at the Treasury where he joined in 2018.
