President William Ruto has named Nominated MP and ODM chairman John Mbadi as Cabinet Secretary for Treasury.
The President named the new cabinet secretaries during the State of the Nation address at State House, Nairobi.
Mbadi has been a long ally of Opposition chief Raila Odinga.
In the run-up to the 2022 elections, Mbadi left tongues wagging when he withdrew from the Homa Bay governor race to concentrate on Raila’s presidential campaigns.
"I have today withdrawn my bid from the Homa Bay County gubernatorial race. I will therefore henceforth place more effort in the Azimio presidential bid and the nationwide bid to have ODM secure as many seats as possible," Mbadi said.
Mbadi said the move was the most difficult decision that he had to make in the recent past and that he made the move after careful discussion with the party officials.
He was set to battle out for the party's ticket with then Woman Representative, Gladys Wanga, who is now the Homa Bay governor.
Mbadi was the MP of Suba South Constituency in the 12th Parliament where he also served as the Leader of the Minority Party
He first joined Parliament when he was elected to represent the Gwassi Constituency in the National Assembly of Kenya in 2007.
In September 2012, Mbadi was appointed the Assistant Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister, a position he held until the 2013 general elections
Mbadi was in the Public Accounts Committee that looked into the multi-million National Youth Service scandal.
As an ODM leader, Mbadi has helped in setting the agenda around political matters in the country in 2020 and 2021, specifically the handshake and BBI initiative.
In October 2022, Mbadi said the National Assembly needed to reject the majority of President William Ruto’s Cabinet picks.
Speaking during the approval debate of cabinet nominees on Wednesday at parliament, Mbadi said all the 22 nominees were ‘deficient in all ways’.
“We have a choice to make either decision to reject over 60 per cent of these names or give President Ruto his skunk. Let us not interfere with it. We give it to him,” Mbadi said.
“These are not people who can run the government.”
He added that only eight of the 24 picks pass to be in Cabinet while the rest are “incompetent, unqualified, have integrity issues and cannot deliver the country from where it is to the next level”.
Mbadi attended Lingongo Primary School and later joined Kokuro Boys Secondary School for his secondary education.
He attended the University of Nairobi in 1992 and graduated in 1996 with a Bachelor of Commerce in 2004.
In 2007, he obtained a Master of Business Administration.