DNK International By Our Reporter,Nairobi.
When he resigned as Deputy Chief of Staff in charge of Performance and Service Delivery on the afternoon of January 12, 2026, few anticipated that within hours Eliud Owalo would declare his intention to run for the Presidency.
The sudden move marked a dramatic escalation in Owalo’s political journey, particularly given his decision to swim against the political tide in the 2022 General Election, when he backed then Deputy President William Ruto against opposition leader Raila Odinga,a risky stance for a politician operating deep within Raila’s traditional backyard.
Owalo has maintained to Daily News Kenya-International that his race to state house is still on.
In stepping down from government, Owalo said the decision was unavoidable.
“Continuing to serve in a senior government role while actively pursuing a partisan presidential bid was no longer tenable,” he said, citing conflict of interest concerns.
An economist and management consultant with more than 20 years’ experience in strategy and performance management, Owalo who previously served as Cabinet Secretary for Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) says he has reached a turning point.
“I no longer want to work for other politicians,” he said.
“I want to implement my vision for Kenya.”
According to Owalo, extensive consultations with a cross section of Kenyans and various stakeholder groups in recent months convinced him that the country is ready for a different kind of leadership.
“The feeling of Kenyans is that we no longer need legacy politicians at the helm. We need managers. We need transformational leaders. We need technocrats who can manage the resources of this country, which have been looted since independence,” he said.
He argued that Kenya’s economic resilience, despite decades of corruption, is proof of its untapped potential.
“Kenya is a very strong economy to have withstood the level of pilferage of resources we have gone through so far,” Owalo added.
At the centre of his campaign platform is a hardline stance on corruption.
Owalo described graft as the country’s single biggest threat, insisting that it can only be confronted through decisive leadership from the top.
“We are dealing with a situation where most of our resources are siphoned off through corruption. Estimates show that up to Sh2 billion is lost daily,” he said.
Owalo believes digitisation is key to sealing revenue leakages and dismantling entrenched corruption networks.
“If elected President, I will reopen and audit all corruption cases from 2010 to date, under the current Constitution, so that Kenyans get closure on who the real perpetrators are,” he said.
He further pledged to order forensic audits of assets held by individuals found culpable, vowing to recover stolen wealth both locally and abroad.
“We will trace these assets whether they are within or outside Kenyan borders, seize them, and return them to the Kenyan people,” he said.
Beyond corruption, Owalo identified public debt as another major crisis facing the country, arguing that Kenya’s borrowing binge is driven by weak domestic revenue mobilisation.
“Under my administration, I want to run a zero budget deficit government. We should only spend what we generate,” he said.
He faulted the current approach of borrowing to finance recurrent expenditure, warning that it unfairly burdens future generations.
“Debt should only be acquired to finance projects and programmes that are self-financing,” he said.
“What we are doing today is transferring today’s debt to future generations, and that is unacceptable.”
Owalo’s economic vision leans heavily on digitisation an area he says he understands intimately from his time at the ICT ministry.
“When I took over as ICT Cabinet Secretary, there were only about 350 services on the digital platform.
By the time I left, there were close to 20,000 government services online,” he said.
He argued that reducing physical interaction between citizens and public officials significantly curbs bribery and rent seeking.
“Corruption thrives on physical interface,” Owalo said. “Digitisation eliminates that.”
On unemployment, Owalo said Kenya must urgently pivot into a fully fledged digital economy, describing it as a space with “unlimited opportunities.”
“My plan is to set up digital hubs, expand digital jobs, and leverage the immense potential of our youth including in sports to create sustainable employment,” he said.
As he embarks on a high stakes presidential bid, Owalo is positioning himself as a technocrat outsider promising managerial discipline, digital governance and a frontal assault on corruption a pitch likely to test Kenya’s appetite for non-traditional political leadership.
[DNK-International@January 28, 2026]
