Eric Ngeno Appointed As Ruto's Presidential Speech Writer
His appointment was among several others that sought to expand the Presidential Communication Service (PCS) office...
Marvin Chege 
Lawyer Eric Ngeno, who served in former President Uhuru Kenyatta's government at State House authoring speeches for him will continue in the same capacity under President William Ruto.
His appointment was among several others that sought to expand the Presidential Communication Service (PCS) office currently headed by David Mugonyi, as announced in Executive Order No.1 of 2023 on Monday, January 9.
Ngeno will be the Messaging Secretary and Speechwriter in the PCS office and will be in charge of writing Ruto's speeches before major occasions, or events that the President happens to preside over.
He served in Uhuru's government from May 2013 to June 2020 before moving to Kipsang & Mutai Advocates as a Partner in charge of Litigation, Research, and Legal Advisory.
President William Ruto with his communications team working on his speech. /TWITTER
Ngeno first met Ruto during the aftermath of the 2007/08 post-election violence (PEV). Initially, he conducted research and secretarial services for him during the Serena negotiations that yielded the National Accord after the PEV.
Ruto at the time was looking for someone with a legal background as well as excellent communication and writing skills.
“Initially, I didn’t understand why communication skills were that important for him. But he was clearly farsighted. When the Grand Coalition Government was formed, he was appointed Minister for Agriculture.
"As a minister, Hon Ruto wanted technical materials to be packaged in a language that could be used to successfully engage a national audience. He is rather good at it, and we spent lots of time going through a lot of documents and prepping him for presentations at various levels,” Ngeno revealed in a past interview with The Standard.
Ruto had contracted him to do a speech he was to give during an event at Moi University. Ngeno tasked his juniors with the assignment and later presented Ruto with the speech, but was disappointed and dismissed it before asking Ngeno to do it himself.
“Since we were on our way to Wilson Airport, and I had less than an hour to put something together. I found a computer and produced a brief speech.
"When he returned, he told me that he liked it. So, I became his messaging resource person for Press statements, speeches, briefs, presentations and other communication,” he recalled.
Ngeno was introduced to Uhuru when they were drafting the United Republican Party (URP) manifesto in 2012 and since then, he worked with them both until his unceremonious exit.
He worked as President Kenyatta’s speech writer for over seven years before he and four other members of the communication team were suspended from the Presidential Strategic Communications Unit (PSCU) over alleged inconsistent messaging.
Other Appointments
Other changes announced include Munyori Buku taking over as Public Communications Secretary, David Nzioka as Digital and Innovations Secretary and James Kinyua as the Branding and Events Secretary
Wanjohi Githae was appointed the Public Communications Director, having worked in Ruto's United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party's director of communications and as a journalist beforehand at the Nation Media Group and Mediamax as a political reporter and Editor for the last 15 years.
Ruto also split the office of State House spokesperson held by former Citizen TV anchor Hussein Mohamed with that of the Head of PCS occupied by Mugonyi.
