Diaspora Affairs Principal Secretary (PS) Roseline Njogu has opened up on the entails of working under President William Ruto since her appointment to office in early December 2022.

PS Njogu, during Wednesday's interview on Citizen TV's JKL show, intimated that she has been forced to be on the ball since being appointed, noting that working in President Ruto's government demands an astute character.

Giving her experience on her first assignment, PS Njogu said that she accompanied the Head of State to the Africa summit in the United States just one week into office.

Without a rigorous orientation into her new post, she says she had to devise a means to showcase a stellar performance in setting the stage for the president, a task that felt very similar to a swimming novice diving into the deep end.

"In my case I had been in the office for a week and it was time to travel with the president to the US Africa Summit and I was putting up the big diaspora event in Washington D.C," she narrated.

"I was under pressure to perform well at such a global stage, one week on the job and making sure that you are meeting the standards," added PS Njogu.

"I remember one evening we were with the director for foreign affairs Ambassador Oloo in one of the hotels in D.C and we sat with diaspora leaders and we went through the programme for about 45 minutes just ironing things out."

Owing to her pliable trait, she picked up the pace with how things operate and was able to execute her mandate.

PS Njogu added that President Ruto, despite his hands-on nature, is quick to offer support where needed and most times challenges his public servants to think out of the box.

"There is a level of detail that you have to meet so that was baptism by fire. So after that, I knew what the standard is, but he (President) is also quick to support, very quick to send help and very quick to say 'I like that idea, run with that, why don't you work with so and so and he calls them there as he says I want you to support'," she said.

"He is also quick to say 'I don't think you're being ambitious enough with that particular issue'. It's a lot about getting people's services quickly, faster but also pushes us to be innovative. Working for president Ruto is a tough job on one hand but it comes with a lot of support." 

She went on to add that she has to over-prepare whenever she is summoned to a meeting with the President in State House, saying that Ruto asks lots of unprecedented questions regarding her office's mandate.

"Every time you're called to State House you always want to have your little brief and dashboards because I know he (President) is going to ask me questions like 'how many jobs have you been able to find Kenyans abroad, where are the jobs?' so you're ready in case anything will be asked."