Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi is the apparent blue-eyed boy in President William Ruto’s government, with the head of state seconding him to represent him at key regional and global meetings.
In a span of six months, Mudavadi has travelled out of the country to five key global meetings to represent the President. This makes him an unofficial presidential envoy, aside from Foreign Affairs CS Alfred Mutua who is often on routine diplomatic travels.
Mudavadi’s stature in Ruto's administration is anchored on Executive Order no 1 of 2022, which altered the power pecking order, placing him as the third most powerful.
The order specified the function of his office as assisting the President and his deputy in coordinating and supervising government ministries and state departments.
He is also expected to work closely with the Ministry of Interior to oversee and implement strategic government policies, programmes and projects.
His office is also to coordinate government legislative agenda across all ministries and state departments in consultation with the ruling party and coalition leaders in Parliament.
Mudavadi is also tasked with chairing the Principal Secretaries Committees.
The order also mandates him to be on standby for any task that Ruto may delegate to him.
The Prime Cabinet Secretary’s globe-trotting started with the December 5 trip to the UK, where he represented Ruto at a Commonwealth meeting on trade and investment.
According to briefs from the two-day meeting, its focus was on strategies for a just and secure transition to sustainable energy, food security and resilience, health technology and the future of health delivery and of green finance.
A few weeks later on December 29 alongside his wife Tessie, the PCS went to Brazil in South America to represent Ruto at the inauguration of the country’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. He stayed in the country up to January 2.
In April, the PCS travelled to Burundi capital, Bujumbura, to stand in for Ruto at the summit of heads of state and government of the signatory countries of the framework agreement for peace, security and co-operation for DRC.
On May 28, he went to represent the President at the inauguration of Bola Tinubu, the new Nigerian president.
A statement from his office indicated he was representing the President at the fete that was held on May 29 at Eagle’s Square in the country’s commercial capital, Abuja.
From Abuja, Mudavadi took a brief detour back to Nairobi, before jumping onto the next flight, on June 2, this time to Angolan capital, Luanda.
He was representing the President at another high-level meeting for peace in DRC.
The June 3 meeting, a follow up to the Bujumbura one, was dubbed the summit of Heads of States and Governments of the signatory countries of the framework agreement for peace, security and cooperation for the Democratic Republic of Congo and the region.
Statement from his office about the trip described the summit as "an important forum for discussing the progress made towards achieving these objectives and identifying any challenges or obstacles that need to be addressed”.
In these official presidential travels, Mudavadi uses the official presidential jet and is accorded the courtesies that come with it.
