James Macharia is an accountant by profession and the incumbent Cabinet Secretary for Transport. He was appointed to the role following the suspension of Michael Kamau in March 2015.
Before that, he was the Cabinet Secretary for Health.
The CS, commands probably one of the largest funded dockets in within the executive, making him a force to reckon with. Only the Ministry of Health and Education, command a higher budget.
Over the course of his stint at the helm of the Ministry of Transport, CS Macharia has negotiated multi-billion deals cutting across Transport, Infrastructure, Housing and Urban Development.
He has overseen multi-billion infrastructure projects undertaken in the country.
Background & Education
Macharia was born in 1959 in Kigumo, Muranga County.
The CS attended Kagumo High School in Nyeri County for his ‘O’ and ‘A’ levels. He finished top of his class.
He later joined the University of Nairobi where he graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce in 1983.
Macharia holds a Masters of Business Administration from Henley Management College, UK.
He was selected on merit by Deloitte & Touche to train as a Chartered Accountant at the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales in London, UK.
He is also a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in Kenya.
Career
Macharia joined Standard Chartered Bank in 1989, and rose to become the lender’s Financial Controller in 1994.
He later moved to Zambia as the Managing Director, African Banking Corporation, and later transferred to Tanzania in the same capacity.
He later became the Group Managing Director at NIC Bank where he served from 2005 to May 2013. Under Macharia’s stewardship, the bank grew to have five subsidiary companies including in Tanzania and Uganda.
Cabinet
He was appointed by President Uhuru Kenyatta as the CS for Health in 2013 and served in the capacity until 2015.
CS Macharia was later transferred to the Ministry of Transport following the suspension of Michael Kamau in March 2013.
Projects
He has overseen the construction of mega projects in the country, including the multi-billion Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) project.
He has also overseen the construction of the Ksh64 billion Nairobi Expressway project connecting the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) and James Gichuru Road in Westlands.
Several other projects including dam projects, LAPSSET and rehabilitation of the Meter Gauge Railway have also been undertaken under his tenure.
Thousands of road kilometres have been completed while others are still under construction.
Macharia’s ministry, however, constitutes a large chunk of Kenya’s foreign debt with over Ksh800 billion poured into infrastructure projects.
Family
Macharia is married to Pamela Chanda a Zambian national and has two children – Martin and Sandra.
