Christopher Kinyua Replaces Kimotho At National Registration Bureau

The National Registration Bureau's (NRB) new secretary is Christopher Kinyua Wanjau. 

Wanjau, who has been working for the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) as the director for motor vehicle registration and licensing, succeeds Mr. Reuben Kimotho, who retired after 16 years of service at the bureau within the Ministry of Interior's State department for Citizen Services.

Wanjau, a professional administrator and government employee, is credited with digitizing NTSA services, which has enabled the public to access services more easily through the self-service portal TIMS.

In addition to transferring services for the DLs to be accessed at Huduma offices across the nation, the NTSA bought cutting-edge printing equipment for the digital driving licenses during his stint at the safety authority.

In the same time frame, more than a million digital driver's license cards were printed.

Before working for the NTSA, Wanjau held a variety of positions in government agencies, including those in Kiambu County, where he served as the mayor of Thika and as the deputy county commissioner for areas including Thika and Eldoret West in Uasin Gishu.

"His wealth of experience in leadership, governance and technology compounded with training is expected to see the expansion of services for the registration of persons in the country," read part of an internal memo.

Wanjau has two master's degrees, one in business administration and strategic management from Catholic University and the other in public administration from Moi University. 

His strategic management PhD is now being completed.

In his speech of handover, Mr. Kimotho expressed his complete confidence that his successor will lead a solid team capable of providing excellent services to the public and elevating the department to new heights.

“Together we have covered many grounds. We issued 30 million 2nd Generation IDs to Kenyans and also managed to automate registration services in Jogoo House, Huduma Centers and County Registration Stations.

The staff complement during this period grew from 3,000 to 6,687,” said Kimotho.

He said that the bureau had petitioned the Public Service Commission with success to evaluate its organizational structure and staffing levels.