Speaker Profile

Dr. Samson Machaka is a former Director of Monitoring and Evaluation Department (MED) in the Ministry of Devolution and Planning in Kenya. He was also the Chief Economist in the Human Resources and Social Services Department in the then Ministry of State for Planning, National Development and Vision 2030. He joined the Public Service as an Economist 11 in 1984 and has climbed through the ranks to his present position.

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The department that Samson heads is charged with the responsibility of coordinating the implementation of the National Integrated Monitoring and Evaluation System (NIMES) in Kenya. The NIMES is a mechanism that enables the government to track implementation progress of policies programs and projects at both the National and County level.

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Samson sits in various advisory boards, task forces and committees with the express purpose of championing M&E issues and ensures its integration in all aspects of planning, accountability, and governance. He is also the focal person/chair of the Kenya Community of Practice on Managing for Development Results (KCoP-MfDR). Under his leadership, Dr. Machuka has encouraged partnership engagements and Knowledge Management in support of managing for development results. Partnerships have been forged with Knowledge Management Africa, Kenya Chapter; Evaluation Society of Kenya (ESK) and the Annual National Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Week platform held every 45th Week of the calendar year since 2013.

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Samson holds a B.A (Hons) Upper second in Economics from the University of Nairobi in Kenya (1984), an M.A in Economics from the University of Guelph in Canada (1989) and a PhD in Economics from the Open University of Tanzania in Tanzania (2016).

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Samson has also published two academic papers in two international journals; the first one is entitled “Determinants of Productivity of Small-Scale Holdings of Arabica Coffee in Kenya: A Case Study of Kiambu County, Kenya published in August 2016 in the international journal of Humanities and Social studies; the second one is the Supply Response And Production Trends of The Arabica Coffee: A case Study of the Small Holdings of Kiambu County Between 2004 and 2014, Kenya published in September 2016 in the International Research Journal of Economics.