All eyes on Karua, Waiguru as they face off for top seat

The stage is set for perhaps the biggest political battle between what are seen as two of Kenya’s most aggressive women, former presidential candidate Martha Karua and former Devolution Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru.

Ms Karua, a battle hardened politician, and Ms Waiguru, a strong willed woman in her own right, will be fighting to unseat Kirinyaga Governor Joseph Ndathi in the next General Election.

While Ms Karua has maintained that she will be gunning for the seat on her Narc Kenya party ticket, Ms Waiguru will have to fight for the right to represent Jubilee Party with Mr Ndathi and a host of other aspirants.

Interestingly, all the three candidates come from Gichugu constituency which Ms Karua represented uninterrupted from 1992 to 2013. Kirinyaga has four constituencies — Gichugu, Mwea, Kirinyaga Central and Ndia.

Regionalism, however, will play a key role in deciding the eventual winner.

SWING VOTE

Traditionally, Ndia and Gichugu vote for their respective candidates to a man. Mwea has a more cosmopolitan population, bringing together immigrants from Ndia, Gichugu, Kiambu, Murang’a, Ukambani and Embu and thus produces the swing vote. Kirinyaga Central traditionally votes with Ndia as it was hived off the larger Ndia.

A candidate who wins in either Ndia or Gichugu and gets support from Mwea will be home and dry.

“If one wins in the three constituencies, they will be governor by 7 am on election day,” said Mrs Wangui Ngirichi, who is gunning for Woman Representative.

And that is why Ms Waiguru’s entry will complicate matters for Mr Ndathi during nominations as they both hail from Gichugu, a bloc the governor was counting on to retain his seat. Making matters worse for Mr Ndathi is that Ms Waiguru is from Ngariama ward, the most populous in the constituency and which traditionally votes for its own.

“They have a ‘nika mwene’ (we stick with our own) mentality, which might favour her,” said Mr Mureithi Kang’ara, a director at Tana Athi and chief campaigner for Kenyan ambassador to the US, Njeru Githae, in the 2013 governor’s race.

Mr Ndathi says he is unmoved. “We welcome as many aspirants as possible. Let them know I was a mono (greenhorn) in 2013 and now I have experience,” he said.

WIDELY EXPERIENCED POLITICIAN

Ms Karua is a widely experienced politician, having first been elected in 1992.

She is best known for shooting from the hip. A lawyer by profession, she stormed out of President Daniel Moi’s rally in 1998 at Kerugoya Stadium when she was denied an opportunity to speak.

Ms Karua is credited with defending former President Mwai Kibaki’s 2007 election “victory” from being “snatched” by a charged ODM brigade led by Mr William Ruto and Mr James Orengo at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) on that eventful December 30, prompting Electoral Commission of Kenya chairman Samuel Kivuitu to declare Mr Kibaki the winner.

It is at the same Kerugoya Stadium that she received President Uhuru Kenyatta on Monday last week. The two have been reading from different scripts since 2008 and her presence was widely acknowledged by residents as a positive move.

The President’s body language in Kirinyaga was telling. While he exchanged a firm handshake with Ms Waiguru, he hugged Ms Karua and she was the only aspirant allowed to speak to wananchi amid shouts from the crowd to ditch her party and join Jubilee. But typical of the “Iron Lady of Gichugu”, she flashed her party’s two-finger salute at them.

IRON LADY OF GICHUGU

The President invited her on his final tour in neighbouring Murang’a County where she used Deputy President William Ruto’s helicopter.

With no corruption allegations against her, her opponents’ biggest weapon is that she is not in Jubilee, the dominant party in the region. There is no indication that she will switch parties and therefore her campaign mettle against the Jubilee juggernaut will be tested at the polls.

She, however, views the debate about two strong women as misplaced.

“How is it unique yet women have been vying in constituencies since time immemorial? Even in Gichugu, I have faced a woman candidate and however fringe she was, she was a candidate. It is not unique, a governor’s seat is just like any other and many seats have been fought for by women before. If you don’t find it odd to have 20 men jostling for a seat then don’t find it unique that there are women,” she said.

She said the rules do not favour her just because she is a woman. “Unless you want to suggest women are creatures from outer space. The same rules apply to us all,” she said.

To some residents of Kirinyaga, Ms Waiguru is a saviour. To others, her past disqualifies her for public office.

She holds an economics degree from Egerton University and a Masters degree from the University of Nairobi. But it is her career trajectory that reveals her grit.

The mother of three sons started her career as an intern at Transparency International, a non-governmental organisation that spearheads the fight against corruption, before joining the Kenya Leadership Institute.

She was involved in coming up with the Kenya Bribery Index, a survey that ranks the most corrupt institutions and how much officials in such organisations were paid.

Later, she moved to the World Bank as the East African regional representative for the parliamentary network. She was charged with coordinating MPs monitoring World Bank projects in eight countries.

FIRST STINT

But her first stint in the Kenyan civil service was when the World Bank seconded her to the Cabinet office as a technical adviser on issues of governance, leadership and reforms in the public sector. She was later to replace John Githongo as head of governance when the former PS fled the country after accusing President Kibaki’s ministers of graft.

But it was during the Grand Coalition government that Ms Waiguru’s real mettle was first felt. She was tasked with implementing the Economic Stimulus Programme and, as the head of governance, was mandated to ensure the Sh22 billion set aside for the programme reached the intended recipients in all constituencies.

She later oversaw the implementation of Ifmis, the government payment system that has been blamed for loss of billions in taxpayers’ money.

And when Mr Kenyatta became President in 2013, she was nominated  Cabinet Secretary for Devolution and Planning, one of the most powerful dockets.

According to Ms Waiguru, it is a job she did not want. “I had applied for a Principal Secretary’s job. I was shocked when I was called for a Cabinet Secretary’s interview,” she said.

From then, she experienced her highs and lows — a mixture of delivery and controversy that constantly kept her in the eye of the storm. But the deal breaker was the National Youth Service scandal in which it is alleged that over Sh800 million was stolen under her watch.

She has consistently said she was the whistle blower and was not aware what officials in her ministry were doing.

However, an interview she gave when she was appointed in 2013 contradicts this. “I am a stickler for perfection. I cannot stand mediocrity. I like checking details. Even if a staff writes a memo, everything has to be fine — including the font it is written in,” she said then.

In the election, Ms Waiguru said she is not just counting on the ward vote. “My appeal is also to the youth and women. They know what I have done,” she told the Sunday Nation.

PROJECTS HERSELF AS A PERFORMER

Indeed, Ms Waiguru is a brand across the county and projects herself as a performer who was kicked out by enemies of the Jubilee government.

“I brought the Huduma Centre to Kirinyaga and it was during my time that I lobbied for the construction of the Kianyaga-Kiamutugu-Githure road,” said. She is hinging her campaigns on empowerment of the youth and women through agriculture.

“The people of Kirinyaga will have the best healthcare. We will not be going without essentials in hospitals. I will also stop importation of rice and build value-addition centres,” she said.

But she has to fight the tag that she wants to use the seat to cleanse her controversial past in the public service.

When she announced her candidature, online forums questioned her source of wealth and whether she would “pour cash in Kirinyaga”.

“I never took a shilling from NYS and I do not owe anybody any money. I have no money stashed away somewhere for campaigns, I will fund-raise like everyone else,” she said.

Ms Waiguru has also come under criticism for the elite and idealistic way she is conducting her politics.

“She must talk the people’s language, use their accent and empathise with their needs. We need to see her as one of us, not someone who has come to Kirinyaga just because she wants a seat,” said Mr Kang’ara, the Tana Athi director.