PS Roseline Njogu On Huge Pressure While Working For Ruto
For her first assignment, she had to accompany the Head of State to the Africa summit in the United States (US)...
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Diaspora Affairs Principal Secretary (PS) Roseline Njogu on Wednesday, February 1 opened up on the litmus test she was subjected to, working for President William Ruto, immediately after she took office in December 2022.
Speaking to Citizen TV's Jeff Koinange on the JKLive show, Njogu intimated that she was treated to a 'baptism of fire' since being appointed, noting the demands one has to sustain to survive in the new administration.
“Working for the President is a tough job, but I am grateful that it also comes with a lot of support,” she revealed, likening that to being a wedding planner.
For her first assignment, she had to accompany the Head of State to the Africa summit in the United States (US), when she was just a week old in office.
"In my case, I had been in the office for a week and it was time to travel with the president to the US Africa Summit and I was putting up the big diaspora event in Washington D.C," she narrated.
Without a rigorous orientation to her new post, Njogu explained that she had to come up with new ways of putting out an exemplary performance, given that she was tasked with setting the stage for President Ruto globally.
"I was under pressure to perform well at such a global stage, one week on the job and making sure that you are meeting the standards," added Njogu.
"I remember one evening we were with the director for foreign affairs Ambassador Oloo in one of the hotels in D.C and we sat with diaspora leaders and we went through the programme for about 45 minutes just ironing things out."
She however managed to pick up the pace quickly regards to the responsibilities of her position and was able to execute her mandate well.
Njogu added that despite President Ruto's hands-on nature and steadfast readiness to offer support where needed, he mostly challenged his public servants to think outside the box.
"There is a level of detail that you have to meet so that was baptism by fire. So after that, I knew what the standard is, but he (President) is also quick to support, very quick to send help and very quick to say 'I like that idea, run with that, why don't you work with so and so and he calls them there as he says I want you to support'," she said.
"He is also quick to say 'I don't think you're being ambitious enough with that particular issue'. It's a lot about getting people's services quickly, and faster but also pushes us to be innovative. Working for president Ruto is a tough job on one hand but it comes with a lot of support."
She went on to add that at times she has had to overprepare whenever she is summoned to a meeting with the President in State House, saying she encounters a lot of unprecedented questions regarding her office's mandate from the Head of State.
"Every time you're called to State House you always want to have your little brief and dashboards because I know he (President) is going to ask me questions like 'how many jobs have you been able to find Kenyans abroad, where are the jobs?' so you're ready in case anything will be asked."
She went on to add that the President does not shy away from calling out someone who is not performing according to his or her mandate.
Njogu was sworn in as PS for Diaspora Affairs on December 2, 2022, of a state department under the Foreign Affairs ministry headed by Alfred Mutua. She has been tasked with ensuring that the needs of Kenyans in the diaspora are met, especially those in the Middle East.
The youthful PS is one of the most decorated lawyers in the country with a Master of Laws (LLM) degree from Harvard Law School, and a Bachelor of Laws degree (LLB) from the University of Nairobi.
Before being appointed as PS, she was in charge of legal innovation at Lexlink Consulting which is a legal and tax consulting firm. She has also previously worked as Lecturer in Law at Kenyatta University and Riara University.
President Ruto's administration is a far contrast to former President Uhuru Kenyatta's administration and among the famous rules that were amended was the aspect of time, which includes restoring punctuality to events and to really any engagement within his administration, as cases of lateness were rampant under Uhuru's 10-year term.
In most cases, members of the Fourth Estate were kept waiting for hours during press conferences and addresses to the nation, with some events starting more than an hour later than the time announced to the public.
The frequent lateness morphed into a joke on Twitter whereby anytime State House would reveal the time an event was to begin, Kenyans on Twitter (KOT) would call it “State House time” or Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), a time zone common in the United Kingdom (UK) which is two to three hours behind Kenyan time.
President William Ruto with the newly sworn-in Cabinet Secretaries at State House on October 27, 2022. /PCS
