It’s good to be courageous and determined and in politics, it’s even better to be ambitious since as Masinde Muliro once said, if you have no ambition, you have no business being in politics.
However, Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru is making headlines as a person whose political oscillation is baffling both friends and foe. For someone whose entry into politics was equally controversial, Waiguru made a name for herself as Devolution Cabinet Secretary.
She was then seen as young and articulate woman leader, who was fairly visionary and well intentioned. A close ally of both President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto at the beginning of the Jubilee’s coalition, she rose to become the de facto Number 3 in the Cabinet by virtue of her proximity to power and the mandate of her docket.
One could tell though that in a first Cabinet of technocrats, there was a mismatch of qualifications and that she was best placed in the financial sector as her outstanding CV stated she had a background in working for the World Bank, Transparency International amongst others institutions.
This is an observation I had made during the debate for the approval of Cabinet secretaries in the National Assembly in 2013 as Hansard records can corroborate.
In less than three years, however,Waiguru got embroiled in a multi-billion shillings scandal at the National Youth Service. She was at the centre of it and one Josephine Kabura, a salonist, accused her using her as a conduit for siphoning money out of government coffers through the family bank. [allegations Waiguru denied]
It was such an embarrassing scandal for a programme that was meant to transform the lives of so many youth across the country. A noble initiative indeed that became the centre stage of pillage by tenderprenueurs, powered by wielding power brokers of the who is who in the then Jubilee administration.
Many officials were shown the door with other succumbing to depression such Claire Lwali, the then deputy director general of the NYS, while others such as Dr Nelson Githinji the then director general and Principal Secretary Peter Mang’iti where charged in court.
Waiguru was pressurized to step aside after acres and acres of stories were written about the scandal and her alleged involvement.
The people of Kirinyaga elected her as a governor ostensibly to cover her ‘nakedness’ as it was then framed political speak. Once again, she became a darling of the system, with President Kenyatta going to Kirinyaga to commission a water project before he was even sworn in for a second term.
Waiguru had won the gubernatorial seat against the ferocious Martha Karua, a seasoned politician, former presidential candidate and Cabinet minister in Kibaki’s government.
Karua had been elected as MP for Gichugu for a record 20 years, thus making it a reality that a woman can be elected in a heretofore male-dominated field.
This breakthrough, it can be argued, is the same that helped the candidature of their gubernatorial seat in 2017 by having two women as the main contenders in Kirinyaga county.
However, a lot of water has since passed under the bridge. Waiguru has become fairly unpopular with her electorate and was even impeached by the county assembly. She was accused of amongst other issues being high handed and awarding tenders in an unprocedural manner.
The Senate acquitted her with [claims of] intervention of the powers that be, but with a premium that she was a leading light in supporting the Building Bridges Initiative. She then was angling to occupy on of the top five positions but when the initiative collapsed, she prevaricated.
At one point, she endorsed Raila Odinga, after publicly stating that the fortunes of the Jubilee Party were dwindling. She later on came out crying foul that the anti-corruption sleuths were directed at her due to her voicing of divergent opinions.
This week, she hosted Wiper’s Kalonzo Musyoka, after sending a text to him stating that the One Kenya Alliance lacked a woman amongst them. For an alliance whose members are yet to agree on who amongst them shall be their presidential candidate, there are indications that Gideon Moi is likely to back Raila, while Kalonzo and Mudavadi are experiencing pressure from their backyards to run, if only to maintain their political base to avoid the perception that they angling to play second fiddle to Raila.
Waiguru is thus degenerating from a strong opinionated woman with a promising career to one who has no clear political stand. She is hunting with the foxes and running with the hares at the same time.
Isn’t this the same fate that befell Jeremiah Kioni and Eugene Wamalwa in the run up to the 2013 general election? Kioni lost his seat while Wamalwa was in the political cold untill he was appointed as Cabinet Secretary in late 2015.
We wish Madam Anne Mumbi Waiguru well as she is on a journey of getting new political suitors, yet again, though her chances of regaining her gubernatorial seat have taken a nose dive, if a recent opinion survey is anything to go by.
