President William Ruto and Esther Okenyuri
Ruto Ally Esther Okenyuri is set to replace Soipan Tuya at the Senate. This is after Tuya was nominated to become a Cabinet Secretary in the Kenya Kwanza Government.
Soipan Tuya is one of eight women nominated by the United Democratic Alliance for the Senate (UDA). Her nomination to the Cabinet necessitates that she resign in order to join the Executive.
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) nomination list places Esther Okenyuri at position nine, making her the automatic replacement for Tuya should she resign from the Senate.
“I am optimistic that I will soon be in the Senate. We are waiting for the vetting to be done before she can resign to take up the new role,” Okenyuri says.
Okenyuri has been working at the Office of the Deputy President since 2018. She landed the job after she was shortchanged in her nomination to the Kisii County Assembly.
“I was number one under the youth category in the nomination list to the Kisii County Assembly. But I was shortchanged by being moved to number two. Only one person was successful in that category,”
“In 2018, I was appointed to work in the office of the Deputy President as assistant director, Research. I participated in UDA membership registrations, among other activities of the party at the height of the Jubilee breakup,” Okenyuri said in an interview with the Daily Nation.
Esther Okenyuri
The 30 year old revealed that she met the President during political rallies in Kisii where she was given chances to speak as a founder of Kisii Youth Alliance.
“I met Ruto in public rallies. I founded the Kisii Youth Alliance and youth would always demand that I speak in those rallies. That is how I came to interact with President Ruto,” she said.
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