Alfred Mutua

Education

He was educated at Dagoretti High School (O level) and at Jamhuri High School (A level). He obtained his BA in Journalism from Whitworth College in the United States and his MSc in Communication from Eastern Washington University. He received his doctorate in communication and media from the University of Western Sydney in Australia.

Government spokesman and public communications secretary

Dr. Mutua was appointed the first official government spokesperson of Kenya on June 2004. He served in that capacity until 3 September 2012. He was also the public communications secretary and head of the Office of Public Communications in the Office of the President. Under his stewardship in this office, Dr. Mutua established a public campaign to promote patriotism, Najivunia Kuwa Mkenya. Dr. Mutua is also remembered for denying the existence of deaths resulting from drought in Kenya in 2011. This act of refuting previously reported media reports earned him the reputation of being the "Government Spin Doctor". He is also remembered for running a Nairobi beautification program which included replacing trees and shrubs with arrangements of pebbles and flowers along the City's highways.

Dr. Mutua was also mandated with a couple of presidential tasks, among the notable ones was to chair a task force that was charged with ensuring that Mombasa was ready for the 2007 IAAF athletics championships held in Mombasa.

Political career

Dr. Mutua became the first governor of Machakos County, which is one of the counties established under the Constitution of Kenya, 2010 and was sworn in on 27 March 2013. He was elected on a Wiper Democratic Movement Party ticket alongside Mr. Bernard Kiala as his Deputy Governor.

In August 2016, Dr. Mutua formerly launched a political party called Maendeleo Chap Chap Party. This was a culmination of several months of speculation among the Kenyan media and general public that Dr. Mutua had abandoned Wiper Democratic Movement - the party that had sponsored him for his election as Machakos Governor in 2013. Dr. Mutua's action of launching and supporting a political party other than the one that sponsored him was considered controversial. He was expected to vacate office and seek a fresh mandate as Machakos County Governor; being sponsored by his new political party in line with Kenyan electoral laws. When Dr. Mutua did not vacate office to seek fresh re-election, Wiper Democratic Movement Party's disciplinary committee found him culpable of launching and supporting another political party. The disciplinary committee deemed him to have resigned from the party.

In November 2016, a notice to impeach Governor Mutua was filed in the Machakos County Assembly by a member Mr. Stephen Muthuka. This was after the motion notice was signed by 46 out of 59 Machakos county assembly members - meeting the two thirds threshold for an impeachment motion to progress. Included among the reasons for the impeachment motion were alleged breach of the Kenyan constitution, procurement laws and devolution laws.

Several days before Dr. Mutua's impeachment motion at the Machakos County Assembly, over half of the assembly's 59 members travelled out of the country in what was considered to be a tactical move for scuttling the impeachment process. In the absence of 32 members of the county assembly, the impeachment motion was debated with Dr. Mutua being represented by his lawyer. When the final vote was taken 26 out of 27 members of the assembly voted to impeach Dr. Mutua. This however was too few votes to legally impeach Dr. Mutua as Governor of Machakos County since the threshold of 40 members of the county assembly voting in favor of the motion was not attained.

On June 10 2017 reports came up that he never formally resign from Wiper Democratic Movement before forming his Maendeleo Chap Chap Party. This was a day after IEBC Tribunal nullified the candidature of his main challenger for the 2017 mid term election.

The Kenya High Court reinstated wavinya Ndeti as a candidate in the general election.