10 things about the late Nyeri Governor Wahome Gakuru

Nyeri County Governor Wahome Gakuru died on Tuesday, November 7 while receiving treatment at Thika Level V Hospital after a grisly dawn accident on the Thika-Kenol highway.

According to his LinkedIn page, the governor, 51, had over 20 years of rich and diverse experience from “Operations, Marketing, Strategy, Public Policy Design, to Training and Institutional Capacity Building. My experience is also cross sectoral covering the Private Sector, Public, State Corporations and Academia.”

Here are other things we know about the fallen leader who is the second Nyeri Governor to die in office after his predecessor Nderitu Gachagua;

1. He  was a lecturer at the School of Business, University of Nairobi since 1994 where he taught to the PhD Level. Gakuru had vast consultancy experience, including presenting papers in international conferences, on Strategy, Public Policy, and National Competitiveness in Africa and beyond.
2. He was the Director of Marketing, Policy and Advocacy at Equity Bank from 2008-2010.
3. He was the first Director of the Kenya Vision 2030 at the Presidency and Cabinet Affairs Office and later at the Ministry of State for Planning, National Development and Vision 2030.
4. He was also the Director, Social Sector Department at the National Economic and Social Council (NESC) and the Head of Strategy Development at the National AIDS Control Council.
5. The late Wahome contested under a TNA ticket for the Governship of Nyeri County in 2013 losing to the late Nderitu Gachagua and finally won the seat in 2017 by a bigger margin.
6. He had 2 Masters and a PhD from Arizona State University, USA, a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Willamette University, USA majoring in strategy, MBA from the University of Nairobi, Kenya majoring in Marketing and a Bachelor of Commerce (Honors) from University of Nairobi.
7. He got an award for being the most supportive lecturer by Marketing Student Association (UON).
8. He was the facilitator on Strategic Management issues for the EU Delegation to Kenya and Somalia, November 2004.
9. He facilitated a lot of programs in his time  including HIV/AIDS for Centre for African Family Studies (CAFS) and managerial skills for Ministry of Agriculture.
10. He served in an advisory capacity in significant institutions such as KCA as a member the University Governing Council, Diabetes Management and Information Centre, the Advisory Council of the African Competitiveness Forum, The Competitiveness Institute, among others.