Interior Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho recently hit the headlines when he told off Deputy President William Ruto’s camp over various complaints on security.
The remarks, which touched on Dr Ruto’s itinerary and outcry over withdrawal of police bodyguards from some of his allies, were just the latest controversies involving Mr Kibicho’s docket that is historically considered one of the most powerful.
“It is a tough position in which the holder rarely has time to rest. You have to be alert all the time as a slight mistake can bring the government down,” says Nyandarua Governor Francis Kimemia, who once served as the Interior Principal Secretary.
Some of the previous holders of the position were so powerful that MPs and Cabinet ministers waited for hours, or even days, to be given audience.
Perhaps due to its unique nature, the position has since independence moved around the Office of the President and various ministries with different names: Internal Security and Defence, Provincial Administration and National Security, State and Provincial Administration and currently Interior and Coordination of National Government.
All holders of the office have been men, except for Ms Monica Juma.
Only three men — John Kotut arap Koitie, Duncan Ndegwa and Geoffrey Kariithi — served as Permanent Secretary for Internal Security during the 15 years of Mzee Kenyatta’s presidency.
Mr Koitie, who was the first indigenous PS for Internal security, was a student at Alliance High School during the famous days of principal Carey Francis.
The diploma in education graduate from Uganda’s Makerere University College was previously a nominated councillor in Elgeyo Marakwet African District Council.
He took over the position from British official C. Campbell, who on June 7, 1963 was appointed as the Permanent Secretary (supernumerary) in acting capacity — subsequently putting him in charge of Internal Security and Public Order, a department under the Prime Minister’s office.
After independence, the Ministry of Internal Security and Defence was established, with Mr Koitie as the permanent secretary.
On December 14, 1965, the President abolished the ministry of Internal Security and Defence and placed its duties under his office.
Mr Duncan Ndegwa, who was appointed as permanent secretary, Office of the President and Secretary to the Cabinet, was tasked with the responsibility of internal security.
The man who would later be the founding governor of the Central Bank of Kenya ran the docket with an iron fist and could make or break careers with the snap of a finger.
In 1967, Mr Kariithi, one of the first Africans to join the colonial civil service in 1953 as a District Officer in the then Embu District, succeeded Mr Ndegwa as permanent secretary in the Office of the President.
Remembered as the longest-serving head of civil service and permanent secretary, he was in the hot seat during the Shifta War in the 1960s, the 1971 attempted coup and Mzee Kenyatta’s death in 1978. Such was his power that he run his “own government.”
In his memoirs, Walking in Kenyatta Struggles, Mr Ndegwa recalls that during the period after the 1974 General Election when Mzee Kenyatta was battling health issues, the government had devolved into three centres of power.
The second one based in Nakuru was made up of Kikuyu supremacists while the third one was at Harambee House under Mr Kariithi.
When Mr Kariithi retired from the civil service in September 1979, he joined politics in his home county of Kirinyaga and was later on appointed to the Cabinet by President Moi.
But luck ran out for the Alliance alumnus about a decade later after President Moi fired him over the 7pm news in 1989 as he served as assistant minister for Industry.
Upon his death in 2012 aged 87, he held the record of the longest serving head of civil service and secretary to the Cabinet.
After the Kenyatta era, only one permanent secretary for Interior Security during the 24 years of a Daniel Moi presidency left the civil service on his own volition.
The Interior permanent secretaries during the Moi era were Festus Mwangi Njuguna, James Stanley Mathenge, Hezekiah Oyugi, Zakayo Cheruiyot and Wilfred Kimalat.
On December 1, 1979, President Moi, who was about a year in office, established the Ministry of Provincial Administration and Internal Security.
For this new role, President Moi promoted career civil servant, Mr Njuguna, from deputy permanent secretary in the Office of the President to Internal Security permanent secretary.
“It is Mr Njuguna who carried out massive reforms in the provincial administration,” says Governor Kimemia.
However, Mr Njuguna’s tenure did not last long as he was taken to the Agriculture ministry. In June 1983, he retired from government, for reasons that were not clear.
After Mr Njuguna, Mr Mathenge, another Makerere University College graduate, was appointed as the new permanent secretary for Provincial Administration in 1982 during a tumultuous period that included a coup attempt and massive crackdowns against “dissidents”(those who questioned the Kanu single-party rule).
On December 16, 1986, Hezekiah Oyugi was appointed Internal Security permanent secretary under the Office of the President.
Provincial and District Commissioners would stand up and salute when receiving his telephone call, even if he was calling from Nairobi, hundreds of kilometres away.
He was removed as permanent secretary in October 1991 after he was named in the investigations over the murder of Foreign Affairs Minister Robert Ouko . Mr Oyugi died in 1992.
His successor, Mr Kimalat, also left the civil service a disgraced man after he was sacked in May 2000 and subsequently charged in court for swindling the government of Sh28 million by importing electronic goods duty free, pretending they were educational equipment. He was by then the permanent secretary for Education.
It was during Mr Kimalat's tenure as Internal Security permanent secretary that a firm was contracted to supply boilers to the Prisons Department, which were either second-hand or unserviceable.
Mr Kimalal was hounded out of office by police sent by President Moi to arrest him, ending the career of the powerful gum-chewing figure.
He was succeeded in 1997 by Mr Cheruiyot, popularly known as ZK, who served in the sunset years of President Moi’s 24-year rule.
His reign was characterised by the 1998 bombing of the US Embassy in Nairobi, the dramatic capture of Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan in 1999 and the Kikambala bombing of 2002.
Mr Cheruiyot, who would later be elected MP, was later on charged over the Anglo Leasing scandal, which pertained the procurement of equipment for a CID forensic laboratory.
After the Moi era, the 10-year Mwai Kibaki era saw the appointment of five permanent secretaries for Internal Security: Francis Muthaura, Dave Mwangi, Cyrus Gituai, Francis Kimemia and Mutea Iringo.
Years later, Mr Muthaura left the civil service a dejected man after he was named as among individuals who played the greatest role in the 2007-2008 post-election violence. He was to be cleared of any wrongdoing.
When Mr Muthaura was promoted to be head of civil service, he was replaced as PS Interior Security in September 2004 by Mr Mwangi.
Less than a year later, in February 2005, Mr Mwangi was sacked in a corruption purge and charged in court over the multibillion-shillings Anglo Leasing scandal.
After he was fired, Mr Mwangi Mr Gituai, a career provincial administrator, took charge.
In April 2008, Mr Gituai retired and was replaced by Mr Kimemia, a former seminarian, whose influence grew to the point that some said no decision could be taken without his say-so.
In December 2012, President Kibaki confirmed Mutea Iringo as the PS for the ministry of State for Provincial Administration and Internal Security replacing Mr Kimemia, who was the head of public service.
A career civil servant, Mr Iringo rose from a district officer and was slated for appointment to the Cabinet but missed out.
In August 2014, Mr Iringo was transferred to the Ministry of Defence following a series of scandals at the Interior ministry.
About a year later in May 2015, Mr Iringo, then serving as Defence PS, was suspended by President Uhuru Kenyatta after he was named in his “list of shame” over alleged corruption. He was never charged.
Mr Iringo was replaced by Ms Monica Juma, who became the first woman to hold the powerful position, and was replaced by Mr Kibicho when she moved to the Foreign Affairs docket.
