Public Service Commission disowns Jacque Maribe’s top government appointment
Barely four days after news broke that former prime time television news anchor Jacque Maribe had been appointed Head of Communications by Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria at the Ministry of Public Service, Performance and Delivery Management, the official government hiring agency, the Public Service Commission, has disowned this appointment.
In a press release to the media issued on March 14, 2024, the PSC stated it had not appointed the embattled journalist to any post in government despite CS Kuria claiming that it had indeed hired Ms Maribe.
“The Public Service Commission has not appointed former journalist Jacque Maribe…contrary to social media posts attributed to Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria,” began the statement.
It further went on to state that Chairperson Anthony Muchiri clarified that no such appointment had been made neither had any request been forwarded to them for her to gain employment.
“For the record, the said position will be filled through a competitive recruitment process should a vacancy arise,” added the statement.
Ms Maribe’s appointment to this point was touted as a rise to grace after falling to grass when she was linked to the murder of business woman Monica Kimani in September 2018.
With her former fiancé, Mr Joseph ‘Jowie’ Irungu, the two faced six years of harsh public scrutiny and criticism following the gruesome murder and the deceased found dead in her bathtub.
It had been Ms Maribe who read the news of Ms Kimani’s murder during a prime time news bulletin and once investigations were started and she was linked, the media station pulled her from the screens before eventually letting her go. She kept away from the public eye but kept a seemingly low profile on social media.
Earlier this year, she was acquitted and found not guilty of being part of the murder but she is still set to face prosecution for lying to the police about her role in aiding Jowie in covering up the murder.
Once news broke of her top government job appointment, she began to share content related to CS Kuria and his office, with many reacting differently to how she landed this position without any vacancy advertisement being made public and with a criminal record attached to her name. It is believed that her friendships with CS Kuria and President Ruto’s aide, Dennis Itumbi, managed to boost her career but it now remains in limbo with this PCS statement.
The PCS statement comes hours after Jowie Irungu was sentenced to death for the murder of Monica Kimani. Ms Maribe still awaits her date with the courts after the Judge found she had been initially charged wrongly in the whole matter.
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