The Americans know him as the Deputy Chief of Mission at the Kenyan Embassy in Washington, DC.
But Kenyans know him as the Director-General of the Public Private Partnerships (PPP) at the Treasury and the chief explainer of the controversial deal in which the Indian billionaire Gautam Adani wants to manage and develop the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) under a 30-year lease.
His name is Christopher Kirigua, a man who might be having the enviable privilege of holding two plum State jobs.
His boss, the Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi, however, told Senators that Mr Kirigua only draws one salary from the exchequer.
Mr Kirigua’s role has come under sharp focus in the aftermath of the $2.047 billion (Sh264.7 billion) JKIA proposal by the infrastructure-focused company owned by Gautam Adani, India’s second-richest man.
He was made the deputy head of Kenya’s embassy in the US in changes that President William Ruto made to the country’s foreign service on March 8 this year. More than six months later, Mr Kirigua is yet to report to his new office.
When the Kenya Kwanza Coalition came to power in September 2022, Mr Kirigua’s office was among the first to be rattled by the new administration.
Dr Ruto’s government refused to approve the construction of the Nairobi-Nakuru-Mau Summit Highway, which had been okayed by Mr Kirigua’s office, with the French contractors only awaiting to break ground.
Two weeks after Mr Kirigua had been redeployed to Washington, the Kenya Kwanza administration pulled the plug on the PPP contract to upgrade the $1.3 billion (Sh170.9 billion) road from Nairobi to Mau Summit, citing high toll fees.
Three months after President Ruto made the changes, he went to the US on an invitation by his US counterpart, Joe Biden. The White House would on May 23, issue the State Dinner Guest List, which included all the Kenyan officials who had accompanied the Kenya President and the designations.
Mr Kirigua was listed as the Deputy Chief of Mission, Kenyan Embassy, Washington.
Last week, Mr Kirigua appeared before a Senate Committee to shed light on the controversial proposal by Adani. He appeared in his capacity as the Director-General of the Public Private Partnerships (PPP) at the National Treasury and Economic Planning.
He found himself also shedding light on his status of employment: was he a diplomat at the US embassy or a Treasury mandarin?
The straight-shooting Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah sought to know what Mr Kirigua was doing in Parliament instead of being in Washington.
Mr Omtatah wondered: Was he [Mr Kirigua] gate-keeping for someone before moving to his workstation in Washington as the deputy head at the Kenyan embassy in the US?
Mr Kirigua replaced Ambassador David Gacheru as the Deputy Chief of Mission in Washington, DC. Currently, neither Mr Kirigua nor Mr Gacheru is listed among the diplomatic staff on the Embassy’s website.
Mr Kirigua, a career investment banker, told Senators he was not satisfied with the terms he was given for his job, which is why he is yet to take up his new role in Washington DC.
He declined requests for comment on this story.
After a borrowing spree that left the country with little headroom for chalking up more loans, then President Uhuru Kenyatta plucked Mr Kirigua from Standard Chartered Bank where he was the Executive Director and Regional Head of Sustainable Finance for Africa and Middle East, to help him raise money from the private sector to continue building mega infrastructure. Mr Kenyatta put Mr Kirigua in charge of the PPP Directorate in December 2020.
“And I was appointed as the Deputy Head of Mission in Washington, DC in March this year. Since then, a lot of discussions have been ongoing and I have not yet accepted my appointment,” he said.
“And the reason for this is purely because the terms which were presented do not match my existing terms,” he added, without elaborating on the terms.
Had he rejected the appointment, Senator Omtatah probed further.
“I am hoping they will fix my terms. Actually, there is a letter that went out to them two weeks ago,” Mr Kirigua responded.
In the 17 years that Mr Kirigua had been at Standard Chartered Bank, he had known nothing else but dealmaking, which means a political role like the Deputy Head of Mission would not suit the career investment banker.
Around the time President Ruto announced the changes that affected Mr Kirigua is also when the PPP Directorate received the privately initiated proposal (PIP) by Adani.
Mr Kirigua accompanied Mr Mbadi to Parliament to answer questions on the controversial PIP by Adani Airport Holdings to develop and manage the JKIA, the region’s largest airport.
Whereas 2024 Budget Policy Statement (BPS), which was published in February this year, says the PPP Directorate lists the development and management of JKIA Terminals 1E and 2E as one of the PPP projects in the pipeline, Mr Kirigua told Senators that it was not until March 1, 2024, that they received a letter from the State Department of Transport on the Adani proposal.
He admitted that he visited India, but insisted that the purpose of the visit was not on JKIA.
The Controller of Budget, in a report, disclosed that two officials from the PPP Directorate went to Ahmebadad, India to engage with Adani Energy Solutions to facilitate the implementation of the latter’s PIPs. The travel cost for the visit amounted to Sh1,252,540.
