Brian Mayodi
Susan Jemutai Koech has been named the Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya by President Ruto.
She succeeds as CBK’s second female vice governor, beating ten additional candidates who had been shortlisted.
Ruto proposed her for the position in February, and she was vetted and given the go-ahead by the National Assembly Finance and Planning Committee.
The appointment was announced by Ruto in a gazette notification dated March 10, 2023.
Koech graduated from Moi University with a doctorate in business administration.
Prior to this, she worked as the Principal Secretary in the ministries of of Tourism and Wildlife, ASAL, East African Community, and Regional Development.
The career banker previously served as Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) Group’s director of the Nairobi region before taking on the positions in the public sector.
“I attribute my career progress over the years, to God’s grace, strong support system from my family, hard work, strong intrapersonal and interpersonal skills, and ability to deliver results through people,” she told the vetting panel.
Early in 2021, Koech and former Treasury PS Kamau Thugge were made state witnesses in the Kimwarer and Arror dams case. At the time, they had been accused alongside former Treasury CS Henry Rotich over an alleged loss of billions of shillings.
Koech informed MPs during her interview that she would work to reinstate an interest rate limit in order to reduce the cost of credit and support the development of an active and functional interbank foreign exchange market.
“To manage frauds in the banking sector, when a bank is coming up with a new product, before approval of any bank product, all the risk parameters need to be looked at,” she said.
