President William Ruto has appointed former National Treasury permanent secretary Kamau Thugge as the new Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya.
Mr. Thugge shall succeed Dr. Patrick Njoroge who is set to leave his position as the CBK Governor on June 17. However, Thugge will need to be approved by the National Assembly.
Since October 2022, Thugge has been serving the role of senior adviser and head of fiscal and budget policy in the Executive Office of the President, a role he was appointed to by President Ruto barely a month after getting sworn in on September 13, 2022.
Thugge was hounded out of office as the Treasury Principal Secretary after being linked to a multi-billion dam project corruption probe in 2019.
Equity Bank to auction billionaire Paul Ndungu’s property over Sh. 665 mn loan
Former President Uhuru Kenyatta appointed Julius Muia to replace Thugge in July 2019 following the multi-billion Arror-Kimwarer dams scandal case.
Later, Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji withdrew charges against Thugge, saying that the former PS would become a State witness in the case in which they were among the people accused of jointly conspiring to defraud the government of $501,829,769 (Sh. 61 trillion) by entering into a deal to construct the two dams in Elgeyo Marakwet County without approval.
The two had been alleged to have committed the offence between December 17, 2014 and January 31, 2019.
Thugge had previously worked in the Ministry of Finance in various capacities, among them as the head of the fiscal and monetary affairs department, economic secretary, and as senior economic adviser.
Before joining the Treasury, he worked at the International Monetary Fund as an economist.
