William Gitau

William Kabogo Gitau
Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Information, Communications & The Digital Economy
Incumbent
Assumed office 17 Jan 2025
President	William Ruto
Preceded by	Eliud Owalo
First Governor of Kiambu County
In office 27 March 2013 – 2017
Succeeded by	Ferdinand Waititu
Member of the Kenyan Parliament
In office 2002 -2007 2010 – 2013
Constituency	Juja
Personal details
Born	(1961-04-04) 4 April 1961 Komothai village in Githunguri Constituency
Nationality	Kenyan
Political party	Tujibebe Wakenya Party
Alma mater	University of the Punjab
Occupation	Politician

William Kabogo Gitau is Cabinet Secretary of the Ministry of Information, Communications & The Digital Economy in the Republic of Kenya.^[1] He is also party leader of Tujibebe Wakenya Party.He previously served as the First Governor of Kiambu County,^[2] a position he won in the 2013 Kenyan general election.^[3]

Prior to becoming Governor, he served as the Member of Parliament for Juja Constituency, a seat he first secured in 2002 and then regained in the 2010 by-election after a successful court petition.^[4] In that election, he defeated George Thuo of the PNU, who came in a distant second, while the previous MP, Stephen Ndichu finished in third place.^[5]

In 2017 Kenyan general election, William Kabogo Gitau was defeated by Ferdinand Waititu in the Jubilee Party's gubernatorial nominations.^[6] Following this setback, he left the Jubilee Party and announced his intention to contest the governorship as an independent candidate. Ferdinand Waititu ultimately won the election.^[7]

William Kabogo was born on 4 April 1961, in Komothai village, Githunguri Constituency. He attended St. George's Ruiru Primary School and then continued his studies at Thika Technical School from 1975 to 1978.^[8] Afterward, he pursued a Bachelor of Commerce degree at Punjab University in India.^[9]

William Kabogo burst onto the political scene in 2002 when he sought the Kanu ticket^[10] for the Juja Parliamentary Seat, then held by incumbent Stephen Ndichu, who was running under Kanu’s presidential candidate, Uhuru Kenyatta.^[11] Although Kabogo lost that election, he quickly switched to the lesser-known Sisi Kwa Sisi party and successfully defeated Ndichu in the general elections.

However, Kabogo faced a setback in 2007 when he lost his seat to George Thuo.^[12] Determined to reclaim his position, he successfully petitioned the election results, leading to a by-election where he triumphed over Thuo with a landslide victory on a Narc-Kenya ticket.

In May 2021, a false statement circulated on social media claiming that William Kabogo had conceded defeat in the parliamentary by-election for the Juja constituency. PesaCheck, East Africa’s first public fact-checking initiative, in collaboration with Code for Africa—the continent’s largest civic technology and data journalism accelerator—investigated the claim. Their analysis concluded that the statement was indeed fake.

In 2013, Kabogo contested and won the Kiambu Gubernatorial Elections, making him the first Governor of Kiambu County. However, his fortunes changed in 2017 when he lost the governorship to Ferdinand Waititu^[13] after failing to secure the crucial Jubilee Party ^[14] ticket, which was considered essential for success in Kiambu County,^[15] the political stronghold of Uhuru Kenyatta. In hindsight, his attempt to run as an independent candidate proved to be a challenging and ultimately futile endeavor.

On 19 December 2024, President William Ruto^[16] nominated former Kiambu Governor William Kabogo to head the Ministry of Information, Communications, and the Digital Economy.^[17] Kabogo appeared before the National Assembly for vetting on 14 January 2025. He was sworn in at State House Nairobi on Friday, 17 January 2025, and officially assumed office.^[18]

During the 10th Parliament of Kenya, George Saitoti presented a dossier to parliament received from US embassy naming kabogo as a kenyan based drug baron among 4 other members of parliament.^[19][20] Saitoti then Internal Security Minister asked the house to grant him 2 months to complete investigations into the allegations about Kabogo's links to Narcotics trade.^[21]

In June 2011, Kabogo was reported to physically assault Mercy Keino during a party in Westlands. According to the Daily Nation, Kabogo slapped her severally and stepped on her joints^[22] after she annoyed Kabogo by shouting, moving around and breaking glasses during the party. Mercy was found dead the following morning along Waiyaki Way.^[23][24][25]

In January 2019, a nairobi high court ordered Kabogo to pay a private company damages of Ksh 100m for land grabbing and trespass of a 5.2 acre property in Westlands.^[26] According to the court, Kabogo was involved in a land grabbing scheme that saw Kabogo illegally occupy the disputed property for over 10 years using a fake title deed thereby denying the private company rightful occupation of the disputed property.^[27][28]

In December 2017, Kabogo was reportedly accused of grabbing a runda property from his uncle. According to the daily nation^[29], his uncle claimed that in 2016 kabogo fraudulently dispossessed him of property and evicted him along with his siblings from the disputed property.In 2018, a court ruled in favor of kabogo on account of lack of a formal contract between him and his relatives. It was reported that kabogo's uncle used the disputed properties for collateral for loans taken from Ncba and Icdc. When his uncle defaulted on the loans Kabogo offset the outstanding loans on the disputed land then proceeded to build houses on the property and proceeded to sell the houses on the disputed property without compensating his uncle for his share on the properties.^[30][31]

• Juja constituency profile
• William Kabogo Gitau - government profile