The rise – and fall – of David Ndii

I’ve never heard anyone call Dr David Ndii – described by Wikipedia as “one of Africa’s best known economists and an outspoken anti-corruption crusader” – as a “dunce”.

The Rhodes Scholar with a PhD in economics from Oxford has an enviable academic pedigree. He has tons of brain power – a good IQ. But his EQ – emotional intelligence – dwells in the cellar.

A brilliant mind but a brittle and fragile ego. His antics only compete with testosterone-fuelled pubescent young boys. A formidable intellect has tragically come crashing down right before our very eyes. He has unravelled in the most undignified manner. It’s a truly shocking Shakespearian tragedy. In this piece, I look at the rise – and fall – of David Mwangi Ndii.

Dr Ndii isn’t an academic per se. Rather, he’s a thinker in the tradition of the think-tank world. In this academic milieu are extremely thoughtful and deep analysts of policy, geopolitics and governance. The Brookings Institution in Washington DC is a prototype of a think-tank.

Celebrated young gadfly

Dr Ndii was the founding CEO of the Nairobi-based Institute for Economic Affairs, another classic think-tank. In that role, he was a celebrated young gadfly. Dr Ndii has been associated with similar think-tanks since then. He seeks to influence policy, especially economic, in the state. In one of his more prominent roles, he was a Svengali of sorts for Nasa, the centre-left conglomeration of parties led by Mr Raila Odinga that took on Mr Uhuru Kenyatta’s Jubilee in the 2017 General Election. 

Many thinkers have elephantine egos. They are difficult to work with in a cluster. They must be at the centre of everything, or they bring the roof crashing down. They whine about even the smallest things because they are control freaks without redemption. They simply can’t help themselves but push to the front of the line – usually without grace. They talk over everyone and they must always be the smartest person in the room, even when it’s clear they aren’t. They are tormented by a large basket of insecurities. In a word, these egomaniacs are insufferable. Often, they will tell you “white” is “red”, and insist they are right. They are never “wrong”. This is Dr Ndii par excellence.

I write today not to defrock Dr Ndii, my fellow public intellectual, but to appreciate him because he’s playing an outsize, larger-than-life role in shaping Deputy President William Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance economic thinking. DP Ruto has in effect become Dr Ndii’s puppet and mouthpiece on economic matters.

Mr Ruto has a chance, even if infinitesimal – to become the President of the Republic of Kenya next year. That’s why Kenyans must know the men and women behind his rhetorical flourishes and somersaults. No one in Mr Ruto’s think-tank is more important than Dr Ndii. He tells Mr Ruto what to say, how and when to say it.

How did Dr Ndii, an anti-corruption crusader in his previous reincarnation and a key adviser to ODM’s Raila Odinga and Nasa, flip and flop to become his own exact opposite in UDA, the house Mr Ruto built? Dr Ndii has shed his skin and changed political denominations. Where in the past he fought corruption, today he embraces it.

Where in the past he advocated for the sanction of looters, today he says they must be amnestied. If Dr Ndii was black yesterday, today he’s white. What’s most surprising is that Dr Ndii thinks we shouldn’t ask him about his dramatic transformation. He’s turned against civil society and completely embraced their nemesis. The question is why.

Let me give you a flavour of Dr Ndii’s impossible fall. Even by the standards of Kenya’s hyperbolic nomenclature, Dr Ndii takes the cup.

In December 2018, Dr Ndii tweeted that Mr Ruto was a “stupid egomaniac” and a “vile creep” who “should be rotting in jail”. He tweeted a montage of the vilest dictators in history including Muammar Qaddafi (Libya), Charles Taylor (Liberia), Saddam Hussein (Iraq) and Samuel Doe (Liberia) and compared Mr Ruto’s fate to theirs.

Seek forgiveness

Recently in 2020, Dr Ndii tweeted that Mr Ruto and “his gang should confess, seek forgiveness and atone” by returning what they have allegedly “stolen”. This month, Dr Ndii tweeted that Mr Ruto’s UDA will not fight corruption. I was dumbfounded.

Dr Ndii added that those who want to fight corruption should vote for Mr Odinga or the fringe candidate Paul Kigame. How did an anti-corruption crusader and good government advocate become a shameless apologist – nay, champion – of politicians he once vilified as lords of corruption? One word – ego. Dr Ndii couldn’t accept that Mr Odinga went into the “Handshake” with Jubilee’s Uhuru Kenyatta without him. Like a jilted lover, he’s vowed to “punish” Mr Odinga by joining Mr Ruto, his competitor.

Dr Ndii’s presence in UDA isn’t about Mr Ruto, but Mr Odinga. Like a kamikaze, Dr Ndii would rather crash and burn trying to destroy Mr Odinga.

Makau Mutua is SUNY Distinguished Professor and Margaret W. Wong Professor at Buffalo Law School. He’s Chair of KHRC. @makaumutua.