Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru has been a key figure in the country's news cycle since President Uhuru Kenyatta came into office.
And even as she dominates headlines now and again, it was not an easy task to get an interview and when we did, she was guarded in many of her answers.
After weeks of planning with her office, the Star finally caught up with the former Devolution Cabinet Secretary on December 17 for an hour-long conversation.
In the recent past, one of her fiercest critics, ODM leader Raila Odinga — whom she sued for defamation — has become a close contact, leaving many tongues wagging.
But to Waiguru, politics allows you to change your course as she changed hers with Raila even as she maintains there is no love lost between her and Deputy President William Ruto.
Waiguru discussed her tenure at the Devolution ministry, her work as Kirinyaga governor, challenges facing devolution, her relationship with Raila as well as her role in the ongoing Uhuru succession politics in Central Kenya.
In the conversation, the governor Waiguru blamed the Treasury for the turbulent economic times that the country is facing today saying the Finance bosses mismanaged the economy.
And as all politics is local, Waiguru revealed that is also not shying away from from representing Mt Kenya, saying all the noise in the region today is temporary. She says, however, that Uhuru is not giving up on leadership.
She also revealed what she does when she is not thinking of and engaging in politics, and what she will be doing for Christmas.
Here is what Waiguru had to say:
The Star: With the divisions in Mt Kenya region and given that the region will most probably need to push a united front to negotiate with other areas, what can you say is your role?
Waiguru: Right now there is definitely a split in the region and a lot of disquiet which is partly political and partly economic. I think this is mostly occasioned because of the 2022 succession conversation. And there have been different approaches to that succession conversation. There are people, in my view, who have played up people's emotions against the president so that they can become popular. And they also have taken advantage of the hard economic times at the moment to use that platform to get themselves ahead.
However, we are working on managing the situation and luckily there is still a long way to 2022 and between now and then I am sure most of the issues concerning the people of Mt Kenya will be addressed. Many of them are being addressed, such as coffee and some of us governors have put mechanisms in place to ensure that our people's lives are bettered. That's the first step.
The second step is having political conversations that are more educative and more enlightening especially around the current BBI engagement to rally Mt Kenya together. Eventually, we will come together. Mt Kenya is always like that. We are very vibrant when it comes to politics... we talk a lot, we have views, we air them but when push comes to shove at the end of it all, we will speak in one voice come 2022. And we will play our part as leaders to ensure that we do not divide our people. I will play my part to ensure that we don't.
The Star: That leads to the question that many are asking. Is Waiguru looking at a higher position than governor? Is she one of those people seeking to take over from Uhuru as the regional leader?
Waiguru: One of my views is that Uhuru Kenyatta is going to leave his political position but he will not leave the leadership position. So there is no vacuum in leadership and that's the difference. His term is coming to an end as the president but that does not mean that he will stop being a leader of the Mt Kenya region. Raila Odinga is still the leader of his troops and does not have a political office. So in my view, there is no vacuum in terms of kingship, so to speak. However, Mt Kenya will need to be presented at the table in terms of political leadership in the governance of this country. And that is a space that I would pursue.
The Star: Your relationship with Raila Odinga. What brought about the change of heart? What conversations are you having with him?
Waiguru: I have said several times that my relationship with Odinga was not good because of the accusations that he made against me in regards to NYS and the political damage he caused to my reputation. And this was not something that I took lightly. However, because of the handshake, it was in the best interest of the country not to put just my personal views but the interests of the country at heart and therefore I let that issue pass. We settled it and we had a conversation about it and I believe he is now more aware of the facts than he was then.
In 2015, a lot of this conversation was politically driven and they were just talking because people had scores to settle. But the approach that the fight against corruption has taken now is one of facts and evidence. And I think now if you listen there isn't that much political noise and it is a lesson that we have all learnt as a country.
The Star: One would then ask, do you have any discussions on political engagements with Raila over the future?
Waiguru: The Handshake. It is a political engagement in that we are addressing political issues. The BBI conversation is mostly political. It is about the political structure of this country, the expansion of the democratic space… that is what it takes. And so that is the engagement that we have right now. We are discussing the BBI… the best way that this country should be governed… what are the structures we can amend to make governance better and how do we ensure that we never go back to the situation in every election cycle where we see violence and some people feeling excluded. That is where we are right now.
The Star: One would then be tempted to ask: As you're a Jubilee member, not seeing eye to eye with other members including the Deputy President, isn’t your engagement with Raila a contradiction?
Waiguru: Again, let me start by saying that this is politics. The handshake is between my party leader Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta and Raila Amollo Odinga. And the Jubilee Party has endorsed the handshake. I am just supporting a handshake endorsed by the party. And I have nothing against William Ruto, for the record.
The Star: You mentioned earlier that people were not well equipped with the facts on NYS. Do you still believe it was a witch-hunt and did you achieve the government's vision on NYS?
Waiguru: There was witch-hunt and that is obvious. There was a witch-hunt. Let me just give you an example. That NYS story pushing my name had 26 headlines in one newspaper. NYS 2 did not get to nine. The Kimwarer and Arror dams were three headlines. We count them, by the way, and we keep a record because I am writing a book about it. We are comparing and what does that tell you? It was being driven, we know who was driving it and we know how much money was spent. It was very unfortunate because it was all propaganda and stories.
Today when you hear DPP talking about corruption, they track and show you the actual evidence. It is not about whether you looked at Oliver and thought this guy is corrupt and I don’t like him so let me push a political agenda. So, of course, there was a witch-hunt and so because of this, the NYS programme did not achieve the ultimate objectives. It should have run for five years and so right now it doesn’t have an impact. At that point, it did have an impact and we saw lives transformed in Kibra at the time and I wish it could have done more but it didn’t.
And so, two years after I left, there was another major scandal. Clearly, the systems were still the same way and the people who had misappropriated those funds before were left in government and continued. It is unfortunate that such a wonderful programme could have been misused. It could have transformed this country but maybe another time.
The Star: There seems to be a lot of hopelessness in the country especially in regards to the youth and jobs. If you were the President today, what would you do?
Waiguru: There are ideas about how to create jobs and, as you know, I am an economist. And I am sure whichever party I will be running with in 2022 will have a very clear demonstration on how we will create jobs. At Treasury, I designed the Economic Stimulus Programme and this turned around the economy from a negative growth of 1.8 per cent to six per cent in one year between 2009 and 2010.
If I were president, I would critically deploy a stimulus programme to revamp the economy and jumpstart it because it is quite slow. Then we could move to natural job and wealth creation. There are things that can be done.
The Star: And so having worked in government, where has the country gone wrong?
Waiguru:There have been challenges in the economic management of this country by the Treasury especially. The Treasury was not managing the economy properly. They were not speaking the truth when they should have. When they were supposed to rationalise programmes, they did not. Where they were supposed to reduce the debt, they didn’t. I blame it a lot on advice from the Treasury because they should have seen it. They have the statistics and this conversation has been had many times. TheTreasury could have done better.
