Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi has landed sweeping powers in government following President William Ruto's radical changes to his administration.
Through an Executive Order, the President not only made Mudavadi the country's third most powerful leader but also enhanced his roles within the state pecking order.
Despite reports of a cold war between Ruto's deputy Rigathi Gachagua and Mudavadi over their roles, Ruto put the ANC leader at the centre of the supervision of his development agenda.
The President directed that Mudavadi will assist him and his deputy in "the coordination and supervision of government ministries and State Departments."
He will now be in charge of the Government Delivery Unit, previously known as the Presidential Delivery Unit(PDU).
This means that Mudavadi will be directly in-charge of the implementation of the government development projects across the country.
In retired President Uhuru Kenyatta's administration, then interior CS Fred Matiang'i was the man the watch as he chaired the powerful National Government Development Coordination Committee.
With this new roles, Mudavadi will be traversing the country to inspect development projects being done by the Kenya Kwanza administration, getting massive coverage and political influence.
In what signalled the President's confidence in Mudavadi, Ruto also put the Amani National Congress leader in charge of the formulation and execution of government development programmes.
Mudavadi will chair the Principal Secretaries' Committees and supervise the technical monitoring and evaluation of Government policies, programs and projects.
This is a very powerful function that would see him take charge of the prioritisation process of government programmes and technically supervised PSs
PSs are the accounting officers in government who commit state resources on behalf of the government.
On Monday, President William Ruto issued a fresh Executive Order reassigning some functions in his administration.
The changes comes four days after an executive retreat in Nanyuki that brought together top ranks of government officers.
The Executive Order No.1 of 2023 supersedes Executive Order No.1 f 2022 issued on October 12, 2022 .
This means that Musalia will oversee all work done by the PS.
Musalia will also chair and co-ordinate National Government legislative agenda across all ministries and State departments in consultation with and for transmission to the Party/ coalition leaders in Parliament.
Adding to that , Musalia will also perform any other function as may be assigned to by President Ruto.
Speaking in Laikipia on Sunday, the President said Mudavadi's additional roles will include overseeing the working relationship between Parliament and the executive.
He also said a department within the Office of the Prime Cabinet Secretary was going to be created which would see the execution of the task.
" The office of the Prime Cabinet Secretary will have a state department that will have oversee the relationship between the executive and legislature," he said,
In his new role, Mudavadi will also guide the Kenya Kwanza MPs in National Assembly on how to handle issues during sessions.
" I suggest that even as you formulate the final amendment to the Standing order, his office is engaged so that we can agree on how to have all questions answered in parliament by CS," Ruto added.