Mr Davis Chirchir, President Uhuru Kenyatta’s chief agent for the August 8, 2017 General Election and the October 26 repeat presidential poll, has been appointed Chief of Staff in the office of Deputy President William Ruto.
Mr Chirchir, a former Energy and Petroleum Cabinet Secretary in the Jubilee administration, is replacing Ken Osinde who passed on in December last year.
DP’s director of communication, Emmanuel Talam, on Wednesday March 2 told the Nation that Mr Chirchir was appointed last week by the Public Service Commission (PSC) and he has reported to work.
“He (Mr Chirchir) was appointed last week and he has already reported to work,” Mr Talam said.
His appointment is coming just days after the Nation established that he had been appointed as the spokesperson/Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Dr Ruto’s campaign team.
The team consists of nine committees- Presidential campaign steering council, economic advisory, politburo, legal, governance and human rights, diaspora, communication, United Democratic Alliance (UDA) leadership structure and foreign relations.
Mr Chirchir is an information technology (IT) guru and his involvement in the last polls drove controversies.
Mr Raila Odinga, who disputed the outcome of both elections, claimed that Mr Chirchir had hacked into the servers of Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) and manipulated the presidential results in favour of President Kenyatta.
Other allegations involved inspecting the printing of election material at a go-down off Mombasa Road.
Mr Chirchir never responded to the allegations on his role in the elections, even though Jubilee denied the allegations at the Supreme Court, saying no such tampering was done.
They argued, in submissions also made by the IEBC, that access to the server was made to all presidential agents, and Mr Chirchir’s access was nothing extraordinary.
In the DP Ruto Presidential campaign steering council which seems to be the supreme organ, apart from Turkana Governor Josphat Nanok, who is the Director General, Mr Chirchir works with Prof David Ndii, Veronica Maina, Hassan Mohammed, Eliud Owalo, Ababu Namwamba, Augustine Cheruiyot while Prof Amukowa Anangwe who is the head of Mr Mudavadi’s presidential secretariat, Brown Ondego, Nairobi Senator Johnson Sakaja and Sam Karanja who was the head of One Kenya Alliance (OKA) technical committee are expected to come for Mr Mudavadi’s side while Senator Wetang’ula will only second Bramwel Simiyu.
This council is responsible for designing presidential strategies and overseeing and coordinating all aspects of the presidential campaign.
