CS William Kabogo picks late MP Johanna Ng'eno's widow, Naiyanoi, for ICT Authority board role
Naiyanoi Ng'eno, the widow of the late Johana Ng'eno, has officially withdrawn from the race to succeed her husband.
The widow of the late Emurua Dikirr Member of Parliament, Johana Ng’eno, has landed a parastatal board job.
Ms Nayianoi Ntutu, a lawyer by profession, has been appointed as the Information and Communications Technology Authority (ICTA) Board member.
The appointment was announced by the Cabinet Secretary for Information, Communication and the Digital Economy, William Kabogo, in the latest copy of the Kenya Gazette.
According to the notice, the appointment commences on April 2, 2026 and will run for a period of three years.
It comes exactly a week after the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party conducted parliamentary nominations in the race to succeed Mr Ng’eno ahead of the May 14 by-election to be conducted by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).
Read: 'Losing you is like losing music of my youth': Grief as family mourns MP Ng’eno and five others
Emurua Dikirr, the constituency birthed from political friction and the advocacy of the late Johana Ng’eno.
MP Ng’eno died in a helicopter crash along with all five who were on board, on February 28, at Chepkiyech village in Mosop constituency, Nandi County.
Others who died in the ill-fated plane were pilot George Were, photojournalist Nick Kosgei, a teacher Carlos Kibet Keter, a Kenya Forest Services (KFS) Ranger Amos Kipngetich Rotich and Wycliff Kiprotich Rono, a protocol officer at the Narok County government.
Ms Ntutu had been endorsed by her late husband's family to succeed him as MP. However, she withdrew a few days later, with her relatives stating that she was unwell and still overwhelmed by her husband's death.
On Wednesday, April 1, she made her first public appearance in three weeks when she visited accident victims and Longisa County Referral Hospital and Ndanai Sub-County Hospital in Bomet County.
The victims sustained various injuries when the car they were travelling in was involved in an accident on the way to the last campaign rally hosted by Bernard Ngeno, the former personal assistant to the late MP, who was seeking the UDA ticket.
Mr Ngeno was seeking to succeed his former boss in the nomination, but was beaten by businessman cum politician David Kipsang Keter, a perennial opponent of the former MP, who thrice attempted to beat him in the general election in vain.
Mr Keter secured 13,749 votes in the UDA party primaries against Mr Ngeno's 13,394 votes in a constituency that has 44,447 registered voters in the IEBC register.
The 27,503 voters who took part represented one of the highest turnouts in a party primary, which points to how tight the race was.
Naiyanoi Ntutu (centre), the widow of Emurua Dikirr MP Johana Ng'eno, after the requiem mass of her husband and five others who perished in a helicopter crash in Nandi County on February 28, 2026.
Ms Ntutu later gave an impromptu speech to residents of the Emurua Dikirr trading centre in the constituency, thanking them for their support.
"I am grateful for the support you gave us as a family when my husband died in the helicopter crash. You stood with him in the three terms he was an MP, you were there during our wedding and when we send him off (funeral)," she said.
She added, " I am one of you and I would not be going anywhere. We will shape the development agenda of the constituency together in the day's ahead."
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