Hon. Opiyo Wandayi is a Kenyan politician currently serving as the Cabinet Secretary for Energy and Petroleum. He has held this position since 2023, following his appointment in the broad-based government arrangement formed after the 2022 general elections and political realignments. In this role, he oversees Kenya’s energy policy, petroleum regulation, electricity generation and transmission frameworks, and strategic energy infrastructure planning under the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum. His current mandate places him at the centre of national development priorities, particularly energy security, pricing regulation, and transition planning within Kenya’s long-term infrastructure and industrialisation agenda.

Before his Cabinet appointment, Wandayi served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ugunja Constituency, having been elected in the 2013 general elections and re-elected in 2017 and 2022. During his parliamentary tenure, he was a senior member of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM). He served as the Minority Leader in the National Assembly from 2017 to 2022, where he coordinated opposition legislative strategy, parliamentary oversight of the executive, and party-aligned policy positioning in the House. His parliamentary career was marked by active participation in debates on energy, infrastructure, and public accounts, as well as oversight of State corporations and public expenditure frameworks.

Earlier in his parliamentary service, following his first election in 2013, he established himself as a vocal legislator within the opposition coalition environment that defined Kenya’s 11th Parliament. During this period, he built a profile around accountability-focused parliamentary interventions, particularly on governance, public finance management, and sectoral inefficiencies in infrastructure delivery. His rise within ODM’s parliamentary leadership structures culminated in his appointment as Minority Leader, positioning him as one of the key opposition figures in legislative negotiations and House leadership dynamics.

Wandayi studied at the University of Nairobi (UoN), where he pursued engineering-related training, and later worked in technical and energy-adjacent sectors before transitioning into politics. His early professional background is frequently cited as informing his policy interests in infrastructure development, energy systems, and technical governance issues.

The Cabinet Secretary was born and raised in Siaya County, where he completed his primary and secondary education before pursuing university studies. His formative background in Western Kenya’s political and socio-economic environment is often reflected in his political orientation within ODM, a party with strong historical roots in the Nyanza region. His early development years laid the foundation for his later engagement in both technical professions and political leadership, culminating in his emergence as a national-level figure in both parliamentary leadership and executive governance.