David Osiany, Chief Administrative Secretary in the Trade ministry, is a man on a mission, and he believes he has been all his life.
From winning charged student elections as a junior university student and adopting a rhino at Nairobi National Park, naming it after himself, ‘Osiany’, the 34-year-old is determined to bring change wherever he goes.
The rhino was born when he was meeting the Kenya Wildlife Service boss. He asked for it to be named after him, and it was done. The young rhino is four months old.
Armed with articulation, a never-fading smile, new ideas, ferocious ambition and connection with the right people, the man from Rongo thinks the future will be generous to him, and he can’t wait.
Interior CS Fred Matiang’i referred to him at a youth convention in Limuru last month as “the Tom Mboya of our time”. Perhaps it is because of his oratory power and the ability to develop an idea and coble a team to push it with.
The Star arranged a sit-down interview with him, and when the time came, unexpectedly, the tall, dark father of one turned up with his broadcaster wife Syombua Osiany.
On Matiang’i’s complement, he said, “I was elated but once I reported it to my wife, she said, ‘That’s fine, as long as you don’t die at 39’,” following it with raucous laughter.
‘BIASHARA TUESDAY’ SUCCESS
For the six months he has been in office, Osiany said, he has discovered that the government has numerous parastatals, entities as well as programmes to support enterprising minds, lower their cost of reaching their customers and revamp the economy, yet citizens do not know about them.
From those giving loans to entrepreneurs, to those helping them actualise their dreams of getting into the murky business world, to those linking them with foreign markets, the help is in plenty.
“I was surprised this information is not out there, and this is what breeds corruption because someone would monetise giving that information,” he said.
So he started a social media chat on Twitter every Tuesday and titled it, “Biashara Tuesday”. He hosts it with members of the public asking questions and ministry officials providing answers.
With those chats, he said, social media users market their wares, linking to their customers in real time as well as getting information on how the state can help them expand and grow, he said.
“I was surprised to find a man who operates his business opposite a state agency under this ministry just across the road, which could give him the help he dearly needed to move to the next level. The simple Twitter chat linked him to the institution so he could access the money,” he said.
Evidently proud, Osiany recollected that his two-hour social media chat with users opened a digital marketplace, where the buyers and sellers linked and transacted immediately and directly, discovering helpful information in the process.
“This digital marketplace trended up to 11 at night,” the CAS, who has a background training in communication and was a valued anchor at Hot 96 radio station, said with glee written all over his face.
Osiany also operates a marketing and PR agency in his private capacity.
YOUNG ACHIEVER
The CAS has a record of achieving while young. In 2009, he made history when he became the first second-year student to be elected Sonu (Student Organisation of Nairobi University) chairman at the University of Nairobi in 2009-10. He was just 22 years old.
The election at the time was hotly contested, with the rhetoric and voting taking a cue from the country’s polarised politics. He garnered more than 60,000 votes, emerging the victor. But it was also marred with violence and hooliganism, leading to the closure of the institution and suspension of learning.
“During our time, Sonu was Sonu, not the UNSA that I hear it got transformed to,” Osiany said.
UNSA stands for University of Nairobi Students Association, the product of a rebranding in 2017 to align with the Aden Duale-sponsored Universities (Amendment) Act 2016, which replaced the popular vote with a delegates system in a bid to tame student strikes.
From 2012 to 2013, Osiany worked as a special adviser at the now-defunct office of the Prime Minister, serving ODM leader Raila Odinga.
After 2013, he worked in various NGOs, local and global, including the UN, doing consultancy work in the areas of leadership, policy and strategic communication.
Asked who motivates him, the CAS said Raila and Matiang’i are his leading role models.
“The two gentlemen are just outstanding,” he said, explaining that the ODM leader has played a father figure to him, giving him opportunities at a young age to showcase what he can do.
“Besides appointing me as a special adviser to his office as Prime Minister, Raila gave me the chance to head the youth wing of the Cord presidential campaign nationally,” he said.
“The man is meticulous and a strategic deep thinker. I have learnt a lot just being around him and watching him do his things.”
From Matiang’i, who is also a devoted Adventist as he is, he has learnt about cutting through the clutter and getting things done.
“This is a man with an impressive track record. From transforming education in this country and dealing decisively with exam cheating to digitising communication to what he is doing in the security sector currently, I just admire the super CS,” Osiany said.
Amnesty International executive director Houghton Irungu and his cousin Duncan Okello have also impacted his life, he added.
“I worked under Houghton at Oxfarm and I learnt a lot about work ethics. The man is diligent in all he does and he taught me well. My cousin Okello taught me about social life skills.”
From Irungu, Osiany said, he learnt the virtue of work ethics and going beyond the call of duty and responsibility to do a good job and the discipline and consistency that accompany success.
“That man is diligent and he’d walk me through report writing and consultancy document preparation line by line to teach me the ropes,” Osiany said.
UNDIVIDED LOYALTY
Asked how he is handling the friction in government occasioned by the vicious fallout between his bosses President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto, Osiany said his loyalty is with his appointing authority, President Kenyatta.
“My appointment letter bears the personal signature of President Kenyatta. That is where my loyalty is aligned,” he said.
He also takes his cue from the ministry’s head, CS Betty Maina, whom he describes as apolitical and professional, having come from the manufacturing sector.
“My CS does not take a politically charged position, and that makes it easy for us who work under her. But most importantly, I get aligned on any issues with what the President wants. If he says I go right or left, I take the cue,” he said.
After a long day’s work, he winds down by playing with his daughter Tabby Teko, as his wife Syombua attests.
“He plays with the girl all the time. Morning, lunchtime and evening as if it's a dosage. It's like he is addicted to it,” she says, to a noisy laughter.
When all is said and done, will Osiany be running in the coming election? Not sure, he seems, or he is holding his cards close to his chest.
“I have up to February next year to resign if I’m to make up my mind on running for any political office,” he said.
Osiany tried his hand in politics in 2017, running for the Rongo parliamentary seat. He was not successful in the ODM party primaries.
Edited by T Jalio