The jobs and perks of 15 chief executive officers of State corporations are on the line as the government rolls out the first phase of its plan to dissolve non-viable parastatals and merge agencies with overlapping functions.
New Bills tabled in Parliament by Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah seek to dissolve six regional development authorities, triggering the redeployment of their chief executives to other government roles.
The agencies targeted for dissolution include the Kerio Valley Development Authority (KVDA), Lake Basin Development Authority (LBDA), Tana and Athi Rivers Development Authority (TARDA), and the Ewaso Ng’iro South River Basin Development Authority (ENSDA).
Others are the Ewaso Ng’iro North River Basin Development Authority (ENNDA) and the Coast Development Authority (CDA).
The chief executives set to be affected by the dissolutions are Moses Kipchumba (KVDA), Wycliffe Ochiaga (LBDA), Liban Duba (TARDA), Ngala Oloitiptip (ENSDA), Ali Hassan (ENNDA), and Mwanasiti Bendera (CDA).
‘… dissolve the regional development authorities as they have carried out the mandate for which they were created,’ the Regional Development Authorities Laws (Repeal) Bill, 2026, says.
‘The Bill further seeks to align the national and county governments’ functions in tandem with Schedule Four of the Constitution of Kenya 2010, reduce pressure for budgetary allocations, enhance efficiency, accountability, and service delivery.’
The Bill was received in Parliament on Thursday. Mr Ichung’wah has also tabled four separate Bills that seek to merge nine State agencies into four entities.
The Kenya Investment Authority, led by John Mwendwa, and the Kenya Export Promotion and Branding Agency, led by Floice Mukabana, will be merged to create the Kenya Investment and Export Promotion Authority, headed by one chief executive.
At the same time, the National Water Harvesting and Storage Authority and the National Irrigation Authority, led by Julius Mugun and Charles Muasya, respectively, will be collapsed to form the National Irrigation and Water Harvesting Authority.
Meanwhile, the Kenya Industrial Property Institute (KIPI), the Kenya Copyright Board (Kecobo) and the Anti-Counterfeit Authority (ACA) will be merged into a new Kenya Intellectual Property Authority.
John Onyango is KIPI’s managing director, while George Nyakweba is Kecobo’s executive director. Robi King’a is ACA’s CEO.
The Tourism Research Institute (TRI), headed by Hesbon Oyendo, and the Tourism Finance Corporation (TFC) will also be collapsed and their functions transferred to the Kenya Tourism Board.
According to the Regional Development Authorities Laws (Repeal) Bill, 2026, all rights, obligations, assets and liabilities of the dissolved authorities will be transferred to the State Department for the National Treasury upon their disbandment.
Similarly, loans, credit facilities, financial obligations, loan collateral and securities administered by the authorities will remain valid and be administered by the State Department for the National Treasury.
Existing contracts, agreements and other instruments will also remain in force and be enforceable by or against the State Department, the Bill says.
Employees of the dissolved agencies will be transferred to the Public Service Commission on terms and conditions no less favourable than those they currently enjoy.
‘The service of all employees transferred … shall be deemed to have been continuous for pension, gratuity and other retirement benefits,’ says the proposed law.
The Cabinet in January 2025 approved the dissolution of the nine State corporations and the consolidation of 42 agencies into 20.
Under the plan, the State also seeks to privatise 16 corporations with outdated mandates, further reducing the number of entities under direct government control in a bid to cut expenditure.
The government spends more than Sh1 trillion annually -equivalent to six to seven percent of its gross domestic product (GDP)- to keep loss-making State corporations afloat, according to a 2025 joint survey by the World Bank and the Competition Authority of Kenya.
The Central Bank of Kenya has previously cautioned banks against indiscriminate lending to State-owned enterprises (SOEs) because many were using long-term commercial loans to pay salaries and other recurrent expenses rather than to fund investments.
In March, Parliament directed Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi to complete the mergers and dissolutions by October this year.
The recently assented-to Government-Owned Enterprises Act, 2026, gives the Treasury Cabinet Secretary power to dissolve or merge government-owned enterprises, subject to the Competition Act, upon the Cabinet’s approval.
The law will scrap 14 State corporations, most of which are loss-making and purely reliant on the Exchequer for funding, and turn them into self-financing commercial enterprises. It will also affect 66 other entities in which the government has a shareholding.
The cash-rich State corporations that are to be turned into companies include the Kenya Airports Authority, the Kenya Ports Authority, the Kenya Railways Corporation, the Agricultural Development Corporation, and the Kenyatta International Convention Centre.
Several loss-making corporations such as the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, Kenya Literature Bureau, National Cereals and Produce Board, and Postal Corporation of Kenya will also be made companies.