Adan Keynan Wehliye

Dr. Adan Keynan Wehliye is the longest serving National Assembly MP in Northern Kenya.He is from dagodia clan ,jibrael subclan.[1] He served Wajir West from 1997 to 2002, and then from 2007 to 2013. He then moved to Eldas constituency which was curved from Wajir West. Keynan served as Eldas MP in the 11th Parliament and he was then re-elected to serve the same constituency in 12th parliament.

Keynan is known as "kingmaker" of Wajir politics. In 2013 he brought little known Ahmed Abdullahi to battle senior politician Mohamed Abdi Mohamud as Wajir Governor. He succeeded in his mission. In the 2017 general election Kenyan led all elected leaders in the Jubilee Party and offered to support Amb Mohamed Abdi Mohamud for gubernatorial position. For the second time Keynan managed to achieve his aim. In Wajir County politics, they say it's either Dr. Keynan's way or face the 'dust'. In addition, he is the only MP who was re-elected from the county. Keynan formed a foundation known as Adan Keynan Foundation to help afforestation, education and youth and women empowerment. The foundation was formed 2011 and up to now runs major activities in Wajir county.

POLITICAL LIFE

Through the years Eldas MP Aden  Wehliye Keinan has  demonstrated immense capabilities since joining  politics in 1997 as an MP for  the then Wajir West parliamentary seat that place  him in poll position to assume  greater national assignment  and influence in the former North Eastern Province.

Although he has avoided  aspiring to be a leader in the  former NEP a time has come for him to demonstrate his worth, deploy his vast experience and organizational prowess and steer the area for it to achieve its goals in national politics.

Keinan’s intellectual and oratory abilities in public life are legendary and never in doubt. The newsmedia and cameras love him and his articulation of issues. His capacity for hardwork and thorough output speaks for itself for he has left a mark to be envied and emulated as a member of Parliamentary Committees and Chairman of such committees.

Politically speaking, Keinan is a  ranking member of Kenya’s legislature, whose cumulated experience in the august house is surpassed only by Vihiga Senator George Khaniri’s tenure. But he has also set a record by sitting in the Parliamentary Service Commission PSC for three parliamentary  terms besides winning a parliamentary seat for 15 consecutive years.

He was the Vice Chairman of the PSC between 2011 and 2012 and is also a former member of the Kenya National Audit Commission.

One can only achieve these feat after mastering local politics, endearing himself to the electorate and proving his worth to peers at the national level, the kind of qualities many politicians would love to have around yet these qualities also invite fear and envy in Kenya’s noisy and competitive politics.

Keinan’s sterling record and appeal is not only a combination of solid academic performance, having graduated with a bachelor’s, masters and Phd degrees but also natural personality and ability to fuse theory and practice in equal measure.

For these efforts he has received local and global recognition and even presidential commendation for outstanding and distinguished service to the State.

For his bachelors and masters programmes Keinan matriculated successfully at Moi and Kenyatta Universities, respectively, before being awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Public Administration (honoris  causa) by the Commonwealth University in collaboration with the London Graduate School.

His longevity in the legislature is  not just an ornament or a matter that one wields as a badge without substance, for Keinan has chaired committees and steered them, purposely including during tense and divisive moments in Kenya’s history. For years he sat in crucial and distinguished committees, not as mute bystander but a dependable member and architect of these committees recorded good performance.

The MP’s mastery of Standing Orders, domestic and international law enabled him  to chair the Defence and Foreign Relations Committee during the highly divisive Tenth  Parliament. As the chairman he, skillfully, rallied legislators from rival political formations to the singular cause of providing oversight on the Executive and protective public interest and national good. Without fear or favour. During that period Keinan audited highly, sensitive dockets in the security, military, immigration and foreign affairs dockets. By bringing top officials to account and checking their expenditure.

Keinan was admired and also feared by those weaning Kenyans and technocrats who would rather have some things hidden from scrutiny, from the mistaken belief that certain dockets were too sensitive to be audited in public. Keinan chartered a new territory and set the precedent.

To the public he emerged as a defender of public interest and enforcer of good. Yet  despite his profile altercations with the Executive the MP also observed the spirit of his oath and honour of high office, for he never jeopardized National Security by leaking state secrets or endangering National Security, domestically or within the context of East and Horn of Africa politics.To date his record for churning completed reports for the Defense and Foreign Relations Committee remains uncontested in Kenya’s Parliamentary history.

A significant report of note was his inquest into the controversial land forKenya’s new high commission in Tokyo which felled a Foreign Affairs ministry and triggered investigations that led to the indictment of various top level officials.Those who covered proceedings when Keinan moved motions for adoptions recall his intoxicating oratory and arguments laden with facts, logic and a deluge or supporting material with nostalgia, itself a product of hardwork that earned him admirers but also envy and rivalry.

In the eleventh parliament Keinan, having been reelected as MP for Eldas and chaired the influential Public Investment Committee where he also investigated and audited top level state expenditure including at the defunct Kenya Petroleum Refineries Limited.

Keinan is a member of the Parliamentary Network on the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, Parliamentarians for Global Action and Parliamentarians Against Corruption and an Executive Committee member of the Commonwealth Association of Public Accounts Committees.

Besides, in the House  Business Committee of the Kenyan Parliament, Keinan has  also sat and contributed immensely as a member of the National Assembly’s Energy, Communication, Information, Labour and Social Welfare between 2008 and 2012. He also served in the Finance and Planning and Trade Committee and also in the Administration, National Security and Local Government Committees between 1998 and 2002.

Before joining politics Keinan was a Director at the National Housing Corporation between 1996 and 1997 and is also a recipient of Global Awards such as Spirit of Detroit Award in Michigan State University in 1999 in recognition of exceptional achievement and dedication to improvement of quality of life in Kenya. In 1999 Keinan received an award in the  Role of Legislatures in Governance, Washinton DC and in 2013 he was decorated Chief Order of the Burning Economic with the First Class Spear commendation by the President of Kenya for distinguished service to humanity and Kenya.

With this outstanding qualities and proven record Keinan stands in good stead to assume new and bigger roles, not out of patronage and similar calculation but on the account of proven ability.

May Allah protect you.