In 2015, President Uhuru Kenyatta named Joe Mucheru, née Joseph Wakaba Mucheru, the Cabinet Secretary for the Ministry of ICT, Innovation and Youth Affairs. In this role, he leads three departments – Youth Affairs, the State Department of Broadcasting and Telecommunications, and the State Department of ICT and Innovation – tasked with the responsibility of mapping out the government’s approach to technology for the betterment of public services through disaggregating, re-using, optimizing, sharing and modernizing tech to improve efficiency and productivity.
Net Worth
Before his appointment as the CS, Article 152 of the Kenyan Constitution requires candidates to undergo a rigorous vetting process by the National Assembly on their qualifications, work record, temperament, and policy preferences.
One of the questions posed by parliamentarians was about his financial background, and CS Mucheru disclosed that he is worth Ksh500 million with Ksh267 million in unearned income. How did he make over Ksh0.5 billion?
CS Mucheru is an award-winning tech evangelist and investor. He studied at Lenana School and graduated with a high school diploma in 1988. He was later enrolled at London’s City University and graduated in 1993 with BSc in Economics and Computer Science.
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Work
He worked at Internet Solutions from 1997 to 1999 as a webmaster and rose to a senior role in charge of infrastructure developments. His breakthrough came in 2019 when he co-founded Wananchi Online, IT services and consulting company, alongside Njeri Rionge.
Wananchi Online upscaled internet connectivity in Kenya by providing affordable services to individuals and corporates. Mucheru had a roaring success at the company, from starting as a Chief Technology Officer to becoming Chief Executive Officer in an enterprise that owns Zuku digital TV service. The company traded its 50 percent share to Emerging Capital Partners (ECP) at a cost of Ksh2 billion in 2009.
With vast technology expertise, Mucheru has the tools to hit the ground running. In 2007, he was onboarded as Google’s Sub-Saharan Africa ambassador and spearheaded several pilot explorations, strategies, and business operations. He was promoted to Regional Lead for Sub Saharan Africa in 2009. Between 2012 to 2015, he was the Regional Lead for Africa.
Mucheru has a promising career. He has been a board member of the M-Pesa Foundation and the digital foreign exchange and payment platform BitPesa.