Are businessmen good presidential candidates? A look at Jimi Wanjigi

My previous articles on alternative leadership for Kenya’s presidential election in 2022 focused on the need to identify individuals with ability and experience to fix fundamental challenges facing the country. The alternative leaders presented thus far are known to many Kenyans. They have experience in tackling some of these problems. Some of these leaders are a good fit for the job of presidency.

But would businessmen and women count as alternative leaders? Do they have the experience required to address governance failure, improve rule of law, and rebuild institutions for service delivery? These are important questions for Kenya because business and politics are so intertwined that one must pay attention to this relationship especially during election. 

All over the world, businesspeople are known to be the men and women behind many leaders in politics and power. This is generally referred to as crony capitalism. It is a close and advantageous relationship between corporate or business leaders and government officials as well as political leaders. In this relationship, business individuals (many are men) are connected to those in power by the deals with government officials and politicians in office.

This relationship gives the business individuals certain advantages in supplying goods and services to public institutions. They usually get favours from the government. They in return give back to their friends in government sometimes through cash offers and other materials befitting the favour they get.

In this transaction, the businesspeople usually make windfall gains or ‘rents’ because their friends in government often create situations for them to supply as monopolies. The government officials and politicians create situations which may look like emergences for the purpose of favouring their cronies in business. Sometimes they create a need for a service even where there is no need .

The government projects and the rents that the businesspeople make from these projects are generally bad for the economy and the society. By granting a businessman monopoly over supply of certain goods, the person will supply the goods at a higher cost than if they were provided by a competitive market.

Crony capitalism is bad for the society. The possibility of earning more from the government through these rents results in corruption. And because the business people want to make lucrative rents or windfall all the time, they begin the process of rent-seeking. They become the ones who suggest what type of projects to implement in the country. They talk to their friends in the ministries to ‘insert projects’ in national development plans and eventually in national budgets.

The deep state

The influence that the businesspeople have because of distributing their windfall to friends in government results in one thing. They become the actual power behind the men and women in politics. They are the real deep state – they are the shadows that make decisions behind the curtains. They are untouchables because they operate like shadows.

At election time, they finance politics. They fund almost all individuals or as the saying goes, they do not put their money in one basket. This gives them access to all government officials. They capture the state and its institutions. South Africa has had one of the best examples of ‘state capture’ in recent times. Under President Jacob Zuma, the Gupta family captured the state and its institutions in such a manner that the family would even determine who would be appointed to the cabinet.

In Kenya, the Asian businessmen captured the government of President Daniel arap Moi too in an unprecedented manner. They may not have determined who President Moi would appoint to cabinet, but they certainly determined what cabinet ministers would do for them in the name of the President. In recent times, the memorial service of the late businessman Chris Kirubi unknowingly showed the type of influence he had over the government including in proposing policies and projects that he valued.

A few weeks ago, several billionaires from Mt Kenya also assembled to shape the 2022 presidential election. In every election, these billionaires publicly organise fundraising events where they raise funds for presidential candidates. This is what gives them unfettered access to the government after elections. This is the influence that businesspeople tend to have over politicians.

But can businesspeople become politicians? Can they leave the deep state to run for office, elections? It is not unusual to find people with business credentials running for office. In the US, from which some aspects of our politics appear to borrow from, there are a number of leaders who had business credentials before moving to the White House. These include President Jimmy Carter (peanut farmer), President Harry Truman (oil industry), and the George Bushes too. President Donald Trump, who was elected in 2016, also brought business credentials to the White House. Interestingly, the US economy performed poorly under these presidents except under President Trump.

Jimi Wanjigi, is he a good alternative candidate?

Wanjigi has announced that he will run for presidency on the ODM ticket. Many Kenyans did not know him before 2017 when the government began to punish him with a heavy hand for being friends with Raila Odinga after the annulled 2017 presidential elections. The violence that followed the disputed 2017 elections antagonised the government after which their was targeted persecution of close associates of Mr Odinga. Mr Wanjigi was one of those targeted.

But it is the utterances during this period that brought to the fore who Mr Wanjigi was or has been in Kenya’s politics. In one of the press briefings that the opposition convened to protest his harassment, Mr Wanjigi openly said that he helped ‘form’ the Uhuru-Ruto government at his house, the same house which the police had surrounded to arrest him. He specifically noted that he did not know the government would turn against him. This on its own showed that Mr Wanjigi was the power behind the scenes before he fell off with President Uhuru Kenyatta and the William Ruto.

Running for president

Mr Wanjigi’s influence in government is not a new thing. He was a close associate of the former vice-president and Minister for Internal Security, the late George Saitoti. He was also an associate of several people in President Mwai Kibaki’s government. But his relationship to people in government was and has always been business. It is no wonder then that ever since he announced that he will be running for office, he has been strong on identifying economic policy gaps and misses that he would like to address.

Mr Wanjigi appears knowledgeable on what went wrong with the Jubilee government. He has publicly stated that the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) cost more than what himself had helped plan or budget when the idea was put to paper. 

He has pointed out that he had warned his friends, President Kenyatta and DP Ruto, that the policies they were going for would lead to heavy taxation and that people would be disillusioned. His remarks leave no doubt that he is a man with good knowledge about how the government operates. There is no doubt that he has been a powerful and influential figure behind the scenes.

But what is he up to? He says he will run for the presidency on ODM party, which is dominated – literally – by the shadow of Mr Odinga. It is not clear why Mr Wanjigi would imagine that he can wrestle the party from its owners. He may be among those contributing the finances for the party’s political activities but this is not the licence to get its party ticket. His choice of this strategy has served one important purpose. It has given him the political visibility he requires to be recognised. 

He has moved away from the shadow of influence to the open. He is now one of the most visible presidential candidates almost everywhere. This may not translate into votes but it will at least present him with an opportunity to be at any table where other elites may want to bargain. 

Be that as it may, Mr Wanjigi has not spelt out his agenda to fix governance failures and the weak culture of rule of law. How he can address these challenges when he has been part of those behind the curtains is anyone’s guess.

All the same, he has profiled himself well enough to be counted at the table where political decisions on who gets what will be made. This of course leaves doubt as to whether we still have candidates who can effectively fix the country.

Prof Karuti Kanyinga is based at the Institute for Development Studies (IDS), University of Nairobi, [email protected], @karutikk