How Eliud Owalo Made a Fortune Advising the Government

ICT Cabinet Secretary Eliud Owalo is among Cabinet Secretaries worth hundreds of millions. Much of it he made before entering the cabinet for the first time in 2022.

Owalo is the holder of an Economics degree from Kenyatta University, where he graduated in 1996, as well as an MBA from the University of Nairobi (UoN). He built a career spanning over 21 years putting his skills to use in management consultancy, and made a fortune shaping the strategic plans of various government agencies and ministries.

The CS revealed during his vetting by the National Assembly that he had a net worth of Ksh645 million. He owns houses in Nairobi and upcountry, four cars, a hotel and land worth Ksh200 million.

Owalo made most of his money in consulting. Since 2001, he has been the Managing Consultant at his firm Eliud and Associates Management Consultants.

Owalo claims to have designed or reviewed over 70 strategic plans, and aligned them to policy documents including the Constitution of Kenya 2010, Kenya Vision 2030 and its Medium-Term Plans, the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs), the AU’s Agenda 2064 and EAC Vision 2050.

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He listed some of the government entities he had worked in during his vetting.

“I have had the honour of being the consultant for strategic plan for Ministry of Lands, Environment, Labour (twice), Heritage, Cooperative Development, Provincial Administration and the Ministry of Interior,” he disclosed.

“Within parastatals I have been the consultant for the development of strategic plan for Kenya Ports Authority, Kenya Airports Authority, Kenya National Highway Authority (twice; 2013 and 2017), the current strategic plan for the Kenya School of Government, strategic plan for KETRACO, the first strategic plan for the Competition Authority and the first strategic plan for Kenya Trade Network Agency,” Owalo continued.

In politics, he has worked in various capacities under leaders including former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, Chief CS Musalia Mudavadi and, most recently, President William Ruto. Alongside other technocrats including economist David Ndii, Owalo was central to the development of the  ‘Bottom-Up’  economic agenda that Ruto touted in his campaigns, promising to empower small traders and business owners aka ‘hustlers’.

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