Simon Gikuru is arguably the youngest secretary general of a political in Kenya today.
At 33, the Makerere University law graduate student is holding the second most powerful position in Musalia Mudavadi’s Amani National Congress party.
He had a candid interview with Star's political reporter Julius Otieno on a wide range of issues.
They include Mudavadi’s deal with Deputy President William Ruto, why they pulled out of the One Kenya Alliance and efforts to erase the perception that ANC is a Western Kenya party.
Who is Simon Gikuru?
I am an ordinary youth aged 33, who got an opportunity to access quality education. I am a proud husband and father.
I consider myself very lucky, because I went to one of the best universities in Africa that is Makerere University in Uganda.
I studied Bachelor of Law.
Of course, I would say that before that, I went to school here in Kenya from Std 1 all the way.
I attended my local primary school in Kiharu, Murang’a county.
Before you were appointment ANC secretary General, were you a member of this party? Were you involved in politics?
Yes.
My interaction with leadership and positions of influence did not start yesterday.
Throughout my education life, I was a student leader.
I am the only Kenyan who has ever served as a leader of the Makerere Institute, a very prestigious students’ body.
I had access to who is who in the legal circles, in the Judiciary and private practice.
I was very close to the NRM [National Resistance Movement] structures, the ruling party, because they have very strong institutional leagues.
Once I graduated from the university in 2012, I joined APK alias ‘Mbus’ of Governor Kiraitu Murungi as a volunteer legal officer.
I later joined Jubilee Party and Murang’a county leadership made me their chairman.
I tried a few things here and there. I tried to be the speaker of Murang’a county assembly but then, young people suffer a lot of discrimination. The county leadership felt I was very young.
So, I quit.
I would rewind.
My interaction with Musalia Mudavadi started way back in 2013, whereby I was working for UDF trying to establish institutions league.
Because of my relationship with my party leader, we slowly started discussing the future of the party.
Then, I decided to volunteer in the ANC party as a coordinator for Mt Kenya region. I managed to establish ANC chapters across Mt Kenya.
Through that effort, the party leadership felt they could trust me with this position and so they appointed me the secretary general in accordance with the constitution.
ANC has somehow been considered a Western Kenya party. How have you managed to erase that perception?
Well, to start with, I will be very quick to say ANC has really never been a Western Kenya party. Maybe we could rephrase that and say its stronghold is Western Kenya.
Even way before I became the secretary general, we had the MPs from, for example, Kwale.
We had MCAs from Mandera and Garissa. We had a governor in Lamu. I think, it is a perception and perceptions could be true or wrong. For me, I would say that was a wrong assumption.
But I also think the party leadership was very determined to wash away that perception. And so, we have worked very hard to amplify the fact that this is not a Western Kenya party. It is a national party.
Is Musalia Mudavadi still in the race for President?
Absolutely, he is still in the race. We just held our National Delegation Convention in January, the famously known as the earthquake.
We passed two very important resolutions.
The first one was to endorse him as the flagbearer for the presidential race in the coming election.
The second one, we mandated him to negotiate and enter into a pre- or post-election coalition.
Those two resolutions still stand. There is nothing that has changed. Mudavadi is still very firmly in the presidential race.
By joining the Kenya Kwanza Coalition, it does not mean we have in any way changed our resolve as a party to see to it that Kenyans will have the next president in the person of Mudavadi.
What informed the ANC to team up with UDA?
Convergence of ideas. We realised that ANC and UDA have more reasons to come together than those that you separate us.
UDA was talking of bottom up and Kazi ni Kazi and we were talking of Uchumi Bora, Pesa Mfukoni. Same thing, different language.
Our coming together is purely based on common ideologies; of resuscitating our economy, of building a more inclusive economy, of ensuring there is peace and tranquility in this republic, and of course, the importance is that the economy is democratised.
What we are saying is liberalising the economy.
We don't want an economy of just a few people at the top and then everybody is working for them.
We want an all-inclusive and not an exclusionist economy. That is why we came together as UDA and ANC.
So, you thought you could not achieve your agenda and plans to transform the economy while in Oka?
I would say that Oka was a very loose political arrangement.
We felt our colleagues then were not placing all the cards on the table. We felt they were hiding a dangerous card under the table.
And even to be more open, we felt that during the day, they would sing the Oka anthem and at night they would sing a different anthem.
So, we sensed that and felt we needed to move faster and join a team that is more alive to the realities of Kenyans and that is none other than the hustler nation.
Mudavadi said he was certain Nasa will not work with again in 2022 election. What really made him clash with Raila?
Again, if you look at the different Nasa coalition, you realise that people had given a lot of their hope and resolve to support the alliance, especially members of our party, because it then carried the aspirations of most Kenyans.
People really believed that former Prime Minister Raila Odinga was the perfect president then.
But upon critical evolution of the relationship between Raila and his partners in the now-defunct coalition, you realise there was deficit in trust.
You cannot form a government when you have people who cannot keep their word.
Mudavadi is a man of his word. His word is his bond. So, across the party structures, we felt that we may not really support the former Prime Minister again.
By teaming up with Ruto, political observers say Mudavadi’s chances of running for president are almost zero. What do you say?
It is absolutely not true. In politics, anything is possible. We are very far from the election date in terms of political timings. Watch this space.
You fiercely reacted to sentiments by Mathira MP Rigathi Gachagua that Ruto’s running mate will come from Mt Kenya region. Why so?
Well, the feeling with our party structures was that Hon Gachagua was out of order because he was too quick to comment on issues that probably are not within his mandate.
Those are issues that we have to leave to our presidential aspirants to advise us on and of course our technical team.
He is neither a presidential team nor a member of a technical team at the moment.
Is Mudavadi and ANC feel uneasy in Kenya Kwanza?
Why would we feel unsafe? We are very safe. We are coming on the table as equal partners.
We are partners to the extent that we need each other. It is actually a mutual beneficial arrangement.
UDA needs us. We need UDA. We need Ford Kenya. Ford Kenya needs UDA. We cannot feel threatened by anything.
Can Mudavadi accept to be Ruto’s running mate?
We will be preempting the situation. Let us give the principals time. They will advise us in due time.
Since joining forces with Ruto, ANC has witnessed mass exodus of its members. Has this weakened Mudavadi and the party?
Sometimes we want to amplify very ordinary, common things.
This is a political season whereby people are crisscrossing parties. If there is a party that has seen much exodus, then it is Jubilee.
Its party leader and members of Parliament have left.
We have only have a few MPs who have left. Are you asking us how many have joined us?
We do not have a deficit of good leaders and aspirants. As a matter of fact, this place [ANC offices] has been a beehive of activities.
Aspirants from across the 47 counties are coming to inquire how they can become our candidates.
The parties that have suffered the most are Jubilee and ODM.
How are you going to deal with nomination issues as Kenya Kwanza Alliance?
The Kenya Kwanza Alliance is based on the cardinal principal of democracy, whereby we want the will of the people to be seen to be implemented, while the minority are being listened to.
So, to that extent, we don’t want to kill our parties by coming together as Kenya Kwanza.
If anything, we want to make sure they are stringer, more democratic and vibrant.
The way you run government must be seen in the way you run your party. We are going to have free fair nominations as constituent parties and we are going to field candidates across the elective seats.
We also want to ensure there is healthy competition.
WATCH: The latest videos from the Star
