After the nomination, vetting, and appointment of Cabinet Secretaries, the next assignment for President William Ruto will be selecting 50 persons whom he will forward their names to parliament for approval.

The positions attracted a total of 9154 applications which the Public Service Commission cut the figure to shortlist 477 names, the figure later rose to 585 as the commission looked to harmonize the list minding minorities, gender balance, and persons with disability.

After interviews that were conducted by 5 panels of the Public Service Commission (PSC), the list of candidates has been slashed to 250 names and submitted to the President. From this list, the President will nominate 50 people for appointment as Principal Secretaries, subject to approval by the National Assembly.

In the president’s first executive order issued two weeks ago, he outlined the structure of his government which will have 21 ministries, State Law Office headed by the Attorney General and State departments in each of the ministries.

The number of Permanent Secretaries is higher that Cabinet secretaries because some Ministries have multiple state departments according to size and functions of the docket.

Ministry of Interior and National Administration headed by Prof. Kithure Kindiki has three State departments, while the National Treasury and Planning headed by Prof. Njuguna Ndung’u has two state departments.

Dr. Alfred Mutua’s Ministry of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs also has two State departments, and so is the Roads and Transport and Public Works Ministry led by immediate former Elgeyo Marakwet Senator Kipchumba Murkomen.

The ministry of Education and the Ministry of lands both have three state departments. The permanent secretaries after appointment will serve as principal accounting officers in each of the state departments.

The nominees will be vetted by relevant departmental House committees, to determine their suitability for appointment by the President. There are 44 committees in the 13th parliament; 20 departmental committees and 24 select committees. The number of house committees increased by 11 compared to the number in the 12th parliament.