Ruto Offers Najib Balala New Prestigious Job

Former Tourism Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala who has been appointed to the board of directors, Vipingo Ridge Resort ( Photo Courtesy)

After one year out of government, former long serving Tourism Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala has made a major comeback into the public service.

The former CS has been appointed as one of the directors at the Vipingo Ridge Resort, a luxury beach hotel along the Kenyan Coast.

This comes as a major relief to the former key member of the retired President Uhuru Kenyatta’s cabinet for the entire period of his presidency.

Balala needs no introduction in the country’s corridors of power. He served as Sports minister in former President Mwai Kibaki’s first cabinet in 2003.

In a cabinet reshuffle in 2005, he was moved to the ministry of tourism before being kicked out of government alongside others like ODM party leader Raila Odinga and Wiper’s Kalonzo Musyoka.

During the 2007 general election, Balala, then serving as Mvita MP, was a key cog in Raila’s unsuccessful bid to oust Kibaki as President. But after the formation of the Grand Coalition Government with Raila as Prime Minister, the then Mvita MP was once again appointed as Tourism minister.

But after a fallout with Raila, he was kicked out from cabinet in 2012. In 2013, he unsuccessfully ran for the Mombasa County senator position but lost to Hassan Omar Hassan. But being a member of the ruling coalition, he was appointed by the then President Uhuru Kenyatta as Tourism Cabinet Secretary. He would go on to hold the position until 2022.

His latest appointment to a government position makes him one of the lucky few members of the Uhuru-era to make it to Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza Government.