Early in 2020, Dr Mercy Mwangangi was settling down at her new job as the Chief Administrative Secretary in Kenya’s Ministry of Health, drafting plans and charting a course, not only for her career but also for the ministry.

Would she fit in? Would she stand out? Would her passion in primary healthcare get the attention she deemed it deserved? What lay ahead? She pondered these and other questions.

Her plans were rudely interrupted three months into the year when Kenya’s first known case of Covid-19 was confirmed.

“I came into the position fired up to pour my energies into the Universal Healthcare programme and reproductive and maternal health services... but what ended up happening is that in the past one year it does feel like I’ve been going through a PhD in leadership, in crisis management ...in multi-sectoral collaborations etc. And this has taught me that there is never a space when you’ve learnt enough,” reflects the doctor.

Firm but composed and assuring, Dr Mwangangi has mostly taken to the Ministry of Health’s podium to address the country, read out the numbers of new infections, quash misinformation or sometimes respond to probing questions from a mistrusting public.

From a little known administrator at the ministry, Dr Mwangangi is likely the most well-known CAS in government right now, something that leaves her feeling as if she is two persons in one.

“I feel like there’s Mercy the CAS Ministry of Health and then Mercy the girl who’s just living her life. It’s not been an easy space. There’s great responsibility in being in such a public space and it’s been humbling.”

Indeed, in the past one year, and on a near-daily basis, hers has been a face synonymous with the fight against Covid-19 in Kenya.

The 34-year old who did a daily commute to her Afya House office from home back in Machakos, had to quickly get an abode in Nairobi to be closer to the office as work engulfed all other aspects of her life.

The University of Nairobi (UoN) School of Medicine-alumni started her career like many other doctors as an intern at Machakos Level V hospital in 2010, having graduated in 2009.

At only 23 years old, she was appointed the District Medical Health Officer in Meru South. She later moved to the ministry as technical advisor for primary healthcare soon after completing a master’s degree.

“I’d say this is what shaped my life to what I’m today because I’ve remained in that space as a public health practitioner for the last 11 years,” she recounts. 

But the alumni of Pangani Girls, Braeburn School (where she did her A-levels) and the University of Adelaide, Australia, (master’s in health economics and policy), insists her career is still in the formative years.

“I’m still making and forming ...and revising and refining my purpose and contribution to the world. So I’m still working on that journey.”

Dr Mwangangi was appointed CAS at the age of 32. She has always been a year and half ahead of her peers as she had to be enrolled early for school because her mother was away studying.

Born in Machakos to a young mother eager to travel to Nairobi to enrol for her law degree programme, Mwangangi was left under the care of her father, a businessman, at two weeks.

“I’ve mental images of him bottle-feeding me, changing my diapers and rocking me up to sleep most nights.”

But she adds, “I’m in awe of my mother who had to make that delicate balance between having a two-week old baby back home while she went to school in Nairobi, because she knew it was important. She went on to become a lawyer and has taken up leadership positions in her profession and has continued to nurture her family.”

Dr Mwangangi, the elder of two children, says her upbringing has engrained in her the responsibility to leave whatever space better than she found it. And this is what led her to the path of medicine as a career. That, and her inquisitive nature, which nudged her on to seek answers in the world of medicine.

“Even when I have internal reflections, the question on my mind is always ‘what can I do to contribute better?’” she adds.

“When I returned from Australia I did 18 months of unpaid work at the ministry. I have been a child of the ministerial system and have grown with the ranks.”

When she was interviewed for the position of technical advisor, Dr Mwangangi impressed the panellists so much with her detailed inventory of the journey of Kenya’s primary healthcare that she was asked to draw up a work plan for Ministry of Health.

“In that space I was able to contribute to the UHC agenda and that is where my interaction with the president and the big four agenda began,” she recalls.

The CAS, who describes herself as resilient, says much as she is always learning, she recognises failure as part of growth.

“As a ministry, we have frameworks of how we deal with different diseases and emergencies. It is something that we rapidly deploy. But Covid-19 was out of proportion in as far as such strategies go. I remember trying to look for my colleagues in the WHO to shed light on this new disease, you know, having to start thinking out of your scope like how does DHL or Copia move things from one end of the world to the other when we needed emergency supplies,” she recalls.

She describes the time as stressful for while the team was spread thin, what with constantly trying understand and process new information to be able to effect a response especially given the high expectations.

 “But I can say Kenya is stronger and much wiser.  We’ve learnt what needs to happen very quickly to prepare structure for dealing with a pandemic. And I’m privileged to have been part of it.”

Away from the official space, Dr Mwangangi loves being in the kitchen.

“The kitchen is perhaps the most important room in my house and I am a fantastic chef. My mother hired someone to teach us how to cook when we were young. I can do very good ribs and beer chicken, bake and can cook different cuisines including Thai and Korean.”

As with every other facet of our lives, her cooking was not spared by Covid-19:  She doesn’t cook as much and has been ordering in most meals.

“In fact the whole of last year I did not cook for eight months and I added a little weight because there was quite a bit of ordering in eating of junk.”

Dr Mwangangi subscribes to the saying that if you get successful, send the elevator down for the others.

It is in this spirit that together with CAS Ministry of ICT, Innovation & Youth Affairs, Nadia Ahmed, and a group of other youthful women leaders in government spaces, Dr Mwangangi has been engaging and mentoring young women who are keen on public service and leadership through the “Kenya ni mimi initiative-redefining Kenyan public service for young women.” 

“Having worked at the ministry, I have encountered brilliant women, who are doing exemplary work, but there’s always an element of self-doubt when it comes to voicing opinion, negotiating for a role, position or promotion, or even executing a project as lead,” she says.

She terms this reluctance “an internal calibration that is inbuilt in women,” and calls for a constant fight against it in women’s day-to-day spaces.

“It is something we need to address consciously and aggressively,” she said.

Is it all internal, this reluctance? We ask Dr Mwangangi.

Her answer: No.  “It is the society. Pay gaps still exist between genders. We all know fewer women serve as CEOs or sit in boards or on negotiation tables, so we continue carrying that generational legacy,” she says.

But all is not lost.

“Progressively, the space is changing and I’m one of those who believe in both affirmative action but this must be coupled with individual push and aggressiveness so that women can advance in all different spaces. And I have seen more rational and pragmatic arguments, and better planning for resources from women even at the ministry, so we do need women in decision making spaces.”