John Armstrong, a British writer and philosopher, said “You don't ask a juggler which ball is highest in priority. Success is to do it all.”

This could sound true for Andrew Mukite Musangi, an advocate of the High Court and a senior consultant at LJA Associates LLP, who was last week nominated by President William Ruto as the chairperson of the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK).

From courtrooms to boardrooms, political arenas and activist investor, Mr Musangi has worn many hats. He has juggled many balls, leaving no clue of which ball is his highest priority.

He beat former chairperson at Kenya Deposit Insurance Corporation James Teko Lopoyetum and four other candidates, including two former Members of Parliament, to the job.

President Ruto after nominating Mr Musangi for the CBK job on Thursday, followed it up on Friday by revoking his appointment to the position of chairperson Public Procurement Regulatory Board.

The job was given to former Kilifi County Assembly Speaker Jimmy Kahindi, who had vied for an elective seat in the last elections on the President’s party but lost.

President Ruto and Mr Musangi are no strange bedfellows. They had worked together for years in the former ruling Jubilee Party where Mr Musangi served as the national election board chairman, placing him at the centre of affairs of the party that went on to govern for 10 years.

One of the tasks, while he waded the murky waters of politics, was receiving appeals from candidates who had lost in Jubilee Party nominations and ensuring a fair hearing.

"Does one become a thief because some aspirants in the primaries lost? The claims are unfounded since all aspirants had their agents,” he once told dissatisfied losers in Jubilee primaries in 2017.

If his nomination is approved, Mr Musangi will be joining the growing list of people the President has tapped from his current or previous political circles for boardroom roles in State agencies.

But for Mr Musangi, his dabbling in politics never stopped him from other roles.

When the Public Service Commission (PSC) on May 3 invited applications for the position of CBK chairperson, 31 candidates expressed their interest in replacing Mohammed Nyaoga, whose term was ending.

Mr Musangi made it to the initial list that was sieved to six on May 23. He appeared before the PSC for the interview at 2 p.m., becoming the fifth candidate to face the panel.

Those eyeing the seat included Abdikadir Omar Aden, a former MP for the Balambala constituency and also ex-MP for East African Legislative Assembly, who was the first to face the PSC panel at 9 a.m.

The list also had John Konchellah (former PS for East Africa Affairs), James Gituro Wahome (an economist and ex-CBK employee) and Thomas Mwadeghu (ex-MP Wundanyi).

In the end, it is Mr Musangi that impressed the panel the most, leaving him with just one box to tick before taking charge of the CBK board.

As an advocate and also the managing partner of Mukite Musangi & Company Advocates, Mr Musangi has practised law both in Nakuru and Nairobi for over 25 years, leaving his mark in the profession.

Mukite Musangi & Company Advocates has over 25 financial services sector clients, over 17 in insurance and over 42 in commercial and corporate sector.

He even once served as the chairperson of the Law Society of Kenya’s Rift Valley Branch, pointing to his standing in the legal profession.

Between 2005 and 2012, Mr Musangi served as a council member of the Nakuru Business Association.

His wife, Mary-Anne Wambui Kirubi Musangi, a daughter of the late billionaire businessman Chris Kirubi, was at one point serving as the marketing director at KCB.

Ms Musangi is now a director at Sidian Bank, which is majority-owned by Centum. Sidian will be among the banks Mr Musangi will be expected to oversee while on the CBK board.

Mr Musangi obtained his Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Hull (UK) in 1993 and was admitted as an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya in 1995.

Over the last 27 years, he has been engaged in private legal practice and private business.

A member of the Law Society of Kenya and of the Commonwealth Lawyers Association, Mr Musangi focuses mainly on litigation and commercial practice.

His practice areas include land law, mergers and acquisitions, banking and finance, insurance, company law and commercial arbitration, public-private partnerships and public procurement law.

Armed with corporate governance and investment experience from various private firms, Mr Musangi was in mid-2021 tapped by Centum Investment as a director.

He also served as the chairman of GenAfrica Asset Managers, which currently has assets under management in excess of $3.2 billion (Sh462 million).