You could easily confuse Jeremiah Nyagah, the son of former Cabinet Minister and 2007 pentagon member, Joe Nyagah, for the ordinary ‘hustler’ out there.
From his dressing to how he speaks, he cuts an image of a simple person who gets along with the common man despite coming from a well off family.
He tells us he trekked to our offices from his rented home for the interview. With zeal, he articulates the economic hardships many Kenyans undergo.
But Jerry, as he is commonly known, has never slept hungry and studied in one of the best schools and universities, not just locally, but also abroad.
The 44-year-old eldest son of Joe Nyagah, whose grandfather was also a minister, has thrown his hat into the ring in President Uhuru Kenyatta’s succession race.
Jerry says the country suffers from serious economic turmoil and political capture that requires radical changes before they plunge the country into a full blown revolution.
“We have a situation where there is political oppression allied with increasing economic oppression. People cannot afford to eat. There is only so far this can go before these young people are going to push back,” he said.
He says his first years in office, if elected president, will be to renegotiate debt repayments with our lenders, deregulate business and entrench the rule of law.
“If God gives me the opportunity to be president, I will spend my first years on my knees in Washington, Brussels, Paris, Beijing, London and wherever I need to be to renegotiate debt.”
“Whoever will come in [as president] will inherit a bankrupt institution. That is why debt has to be a priority,” he says.
He says the Jubilee administration, led by President Uhuru Kenyatta, presided over the plundering of the economy, especially in their first five years in office when they more than quadrupled the country’s debt.
“Those five years were the five most incompetent years in terms of economic management in the history of this republic by far. Every pain we are feeling today comes from those five years,” he says.
He further says his administration will revise the government priorities and channel resources where there is need to alleviate the current economic pain.
“There are certain key and basic priorities in this country. For example, small scale agriculture is not complicated. Every country that wants to grow into a modern economy must go into the journey of increasing productivity of small-scale agriculture.”
“The small money that we will get will go to simple things. Access to water, quality seeds and fertiliser that is affordable. We cannot be talking about transnational railways when we are still struggling to feed people.”
He says the current presidential frontrunners, Deputy President William Ruto and ODM leader Raila Odinga, lack the capacity to bring about the much needed transformation that the country currently desperately needs.
“I do not understand whether either of them understand the need for the kind of changes that need to happen,” he says.
Jerry termed the DP as the product of the system, having been nurtured and raised by the Kanu bigwigs and thus cannot bring radical changes the country requires.
“Our Deputy President is a pure product of that system. He came out of university and went straight into the system, Parliament and has been in that system, groomed by that system and worked for that system for 30 years.”
He says Raila, whom he describes as his political father, has had his path to the presidency blocked, and should now support another general to bring about third liberation.
“Raila has the ball but he has been cornered. He cannot score from where he is. It is therefore the duty of sons to enter the field to help score.”
He saya the former Prime Minister does not have the necessary numbers or strong coalition and is struggling to connect with the young voters to propel him to victory in the upcoming polls.
Jerry says that he wants to make a reality the ambitions of his father, who unsuccessfully vied for president in 2017.
He cited the need to entrench democracy, integrity and rule of law as some of his father’s principles that he intends to inherit.
“The reason why my father joined ODM in 2007 against his community and at great cost to himself, political and financial, was because he believed in democracy. ODM had the numbers. ODM won that election,” he says.
Jerry also says, while he comes from a well off family, he understands economic problems Kenyans face and will work to better the situation.
He says he is not a dynasty as he worked his way in life after he completed his formal education.
“In Kenya, people use the word dynasty to mean money. Well, did my father educate me, yes. Did he feed me, yes. Did I grow up in a privileged home, yes. No doubt.
“But my father did not get me to university. He did not get me As. He did not get me masters degrees, that was me. I have worked every day of my life as an adult. Everything I ever earned came from my sweat,” he says.
(edited by Amol Awuor)
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