Apart from Sports Cabinet Secretary Rashid Echesa, Broadcasting and Telecommunication Principal Secretary Fatuma Hirsi was the other top official shown the door in Friday’s mini-reshuffle.
It was the second time in less than a year that Hirsi was finding herself jobless. In May last year, Hirsi was fired by the President in unclear circumstances.
She had been appointed in November 2015 when the President made changes to his Cabinet following the resignation of Anne Waiguru, who was the Devolution and Planning CS, in the wake of the over Ksh 700 million National Youth Service (NYS) scandal after Opposition leaders led by Raila Odinga piled pressure on her.
In a letter dated May 30, Hirsi was informed that her contract was not renewed following President Uhuru Kenyatta’s election for his second and final term.
“Your employment contract has been terminated forthwith. You will be paid your salary up to June 30, which will be your last working day,” Head of Public Service Joseph Kinyua told her in a letter copied to Tourism CS Najib Balala.
Kinyua asked Hirsi to hand over to the Wildlife Principal Secretary. Before joining government, Hirsi, who has a public relations background, had a high paying job at the Universal Postal Union, a United Nations specialised body, in Geneva, Switzerland, where her monthly pay was Ksh 1.3 million.
She also boasts of previous experience in various business sectors including former Kenya Posts and Telecommunication Corporation, the Communications Commission of Kenya, now Communications Authority; Kencell now Airtel Kenya, Nation Media Group and the Gulf African Bank.
Hirsi also has wide experience in strategic implementation and governance of business through marketing, public relations, communications, community and stakeholder relation building, Corporate Social Responsibility and media engagement.
While at the Tourism ministry, she is credited with steering the sector to become the second highest foreign exchange earner in the country with a growth rate of about 17% in both arrivals and revenue receipts. This achievement earned her global recognition as 2018 Woman Achiever in the promotion of tourism by the Institute of South Asian Women (ISAW) at the annual International Tourism Bourse (ITB) in Germany.
Hirsi holds an MBA in strategy and marketing, a BA (Hons) in languages and a postgraduate diploma in Public Relations. She is currently a PhD student in Communications Studies. Mrs Mohamed is multilingual and speaks English, French, Kiswahili, Somali and basic Arabic.
She served as chairperson of the Public Relations Society of Kenya from 2002 to 2007.
With such an impressive CV, it is not clear why she suffered the ignominy of being sacked twice within a year. For now, it is a matter of conjecture.
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Her reappointment was seen as a reaction to calls by elders and leaders from Wajir, who lobbied for her retention in government as a sign of appreciation to the residents for voting for Uhuru in the 2017 election. Hirsi was actively involved in the campaigns.
