The Woman Of The Firsts. Who Is Serah Kioko?

When Michael Sialai attained the mandatory retirement age of 60, he retired as the clerk of the national assembly on July 31, a position he has held since 2017. The Parliamentary Service Commission, PSC, settled on the most experienced Deputy Clerk, Serah Mbuli Kioko, but they did not know the history they were writing. Kioko assumed the big-sized position of the clerk, albeit in an acting capacity as the 7th Clerk of the National Assembly.

However, her acting function did not deter her from writing history as the first woman in the history of Kenya to swear in Members of Parliament, a duty she performed diligently on September 8, during the first sitting of the 13th parliament. Kioko will be remembered for overseeing the most organized orientation for MPs and the subsequent seamless swearing-in.  

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Mrs Kioko has a wealth of experience in parliamentary service, having joined as a junior Third Clerk Assistant in 1994. As a young woman moving around a predominantly sacred area for men, Kioko had to be resilient and knit all the tenets of hard work to ensure she braved the challenges. Her real encounter with house business was in 1999 when she had to sit at the table for the first time during the ninth parliament.

Previous positions held

Third Clerk Assistant

Deputy Clerk of the National Assembly

Director, Legislative & Procedural Services in the Senate

Programmes Coordinator at the Centre for Parliamentary Studies (CPST)

Clerk Assistant I, II and III in the National Assembly

Board Membership and professional bodies

National Assembly Board of Management- Chairperson

Commonwealth Society of Clerks-at-the-Table (SOCATT)- Member

Parliamentary Service Board of Senior Management- Member

Parliamentary Service Staff Pension Board of Trustees- Member

Tandaza Board of Trustees- Member

Kioko holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Egerton University. She earned her master’s degree in Business Administration from the Eastern & Southern African Management Institute (ESAMI).   

If confirmed as the assembly clerk, Kioko will serve a term of five years, renewable once.

In 2021, Serah Kioko was nominated to receive the Elder of the Order of Burning Spear (EBS) award from president Uhuru Kenyatta.

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