President Kenyatta has revoked the appointed Andrew Kiplagat as chairman of the Kerio Valley Development Authority three weeks after he was given the job.
Instead, the President has appointed Mark Kosgey Cheseregon to be the new chairman. The tenure of Jackson Kiptanui ended in July.
Uhuru made the changes in a Gazzette notice dated October 28, 2021.
It’s not clear why Kosgey’s appointment was revoked. Cheseregon is an ally of Elgeyo Marakwet Governor Alex Tolgos and has been serving in the county government.
Sources said the changes were due to some political reasons.
“I will comment later but for now I have no comment on that please,” Kiplagat said when contacted by the Star.
He declined to say if he had been informed of any reasons that caused his removal.
The appointment of Kiplagat had been gazetted and took effect on October 6. Kiplagat is an environmental planning and management lecturer at the University of Eldoret. He holds a spacial planning doctorate from the Technical University of Dortmund, Germany.
He specialises in environmental planning and management, with emphasis on environmental management and livelihood development.
Kiplagat was to take charge at the authority this week but now it will be Cheseregon to be installed at KVDA.
Cheseregon will take charge of the board for three years during ongoing restructuring at the lead parastatal development agency in North Rift.
Outgoing chairman Kiptanui has said he plans to run for governor of Elgeyo Marakwet.
“I wish my successor well and all staff and management. I have worked with them very well during my tenure,” Kiptanui said.
Two years ago, KVDA operations were paralysed by the Arror and Kimwarer dams scandals. President Kenyatta scrapped the Sh22 billion Kimwarer Dam and dramatically scaled back the Arror Dam project.
Former CEO David Kimosop and top managers were arraigned alongside former Treasury CS Henry Rotich over the dams' financing.
Sammy Naporos was then appointed to take charge as CEO. He has helped revive KVDA operations over two years. The agency now engages in various projects in North Rift counties.
KVDA is implementing projects worth more than Sh2 billion funded by the government and donors.
The authority has started drilling 11 boreholes costing Sh100 million for residents of Turkana North and Samburu North, both hit by severe drought. Staff of the authority have been involved in distributing relief food in the region.
KVDA is the lead government development agency in the region covering eight counties and most of those serving on its board are former politicians or retired civil servants.
