Mwangi Kiunjuri now thinks he has a shot at presidency

Laikipia East MP-elect Mwangi Kiunjuri.

Laikipia East MP-elect Mwangi Kiunjuri. He now believes that if he plays it smart, with President Mwai Kibaki as his inspiration, he will be the Mt Kenya kingpin and President in the near future.

Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group

Former Agriculture CS Mwangi Kiunjuri now believes that if he plays it smart, with President Mwai Kibaki as his inspiration, he will be the Mt Kenya kingpin and President in the near future.

His journey, he says, has just begun, having clinched the Laikipia East parliamentary seat on August 9 and survived the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) 'pandemic' that raged in Mt Kenya.

He scraped through by the skin of his teeth to post 30,057 votes against UDA’s Amin Deddy, who received 28,021.

A month before the elections, Mr Kiunjuri, the leader of The Service Party (TSP) that supported Deputy President William Ruto's presidential bid, had said on Inooro TV that he was reshaping his political fortunes after they appeared to dip.

Potential Mt Kenya kingpin

He contested the MP’s seat after five years of being seen as a potential Mt Kenya kingpin and Deputy President candidate in Dr Ruto’s presidential quest.

He had been unceremoniously sacked from the Agriculture ministry in January 2020 by President Uhuru Kenyatta. Rumours went around that he would be arrested and prosecuted over claims that never came out clearly, and the venom in him came to the fore.

"I want to warn President Kenyatta that he does not have the monopoly of talking ill, defaming some of us who are not in his political wing. If he continues doing so, I will hit back and tell the bad things about him," Mr Kiunjuri said in response to the President's public 'disclosures' that he had sacked him for dereliction of duty and alleged corruption.

Repackaged himself

After leaving the Cabinet, Mr Kiunjuri said he would repackage himself and bounce back better.

In the TV interview, he said he had reflected a lot in the two years he was out of the Cabinet, and his verdict was that he stood a chance of becoming President in future.

He said he will apply the Kibaki strategy and hope to win the presidency by 2037.

Born Festus Mwangi Kiunjuri on April 29, 1969 in Kieni constituency, Nyeri County, the 11th child in a family of 12, he says his dream is valid.

"I only need to apply Kibaki's clever and ‘timid’ leadership tact to eventually bag the presidency in the near future. Kibaki played the two scripts with the ultimate tact and it paid off eventually,” he said.

“Kibaki [left] his big position in 1992 and headed back home in Othaya and relaunched himself for greatness. That is my current assignment and I am determined to implement it in my life.”

Laikipia East MP

And the first step is winning the Laikipia East parliamentary seat.

Mr Kiunjuri explained that Kibaki stands out as the best self-driven leader who repackaged himself from political humiliation to political greatness by accepting to start all over again as an ordinary politician.

“He was sacked in broad daylight by President Daniel Moi and he never threw a fuss. He was demoted from the position and made a minister and he took it up with grace,” Mr Kiunjuri said.

“He went back home to relaunch himself, where he formed the Democratic Party and commenced his self-made journey to the presidency by first uniting his village mates in Othaya.”

Likewise, the TSP leader said when President Kenyatta humiliated and sacked him from the Ministry of Agriculture in 2020, he decided to go back home and relaunch himself.

Presidential or running mate material

“It should not concern you that many in Mt Kenya had expressed opinions that I was a presidential or running mate material. I personally have never lobbied for those positions and I thank those who believe in my abilities,” he said.

“But I realised that to be more compact and to gain more ground, I had to play like Kibaki and that is why after the sack, I went back to my home constituency of Laikipia East to relaunch [myself].”

Like Kibaki, he said, he formed TSP with the aim of returning to Parliament and repackaging himself.

“A man who was earlier responding to questions in Parliament became the one to be asking them,” he said in reference to Kibaki, who was the Othaya MP.

Kibaki became leader of his own team of 23 elected MPs after the 1992 elections. In 1997, he increased his DP foot soldiers to 39 and became the leader of the opposition. In 2002, he became Kenya’s third President.

Play Kibaki script

“[That could happen for me] if I play that Kibaki script. At my age, I can afford to wait for Dr Ruto to rule for 10 years, and even if it demands so, I can wait for his successor to rule for another 10 years and I take over," Mr Kiunjuri said.

Mr Kiunjuri has an education degree from Moi University and boasts that he is a classic case study of the bottom-up economic model, having started his working life doing menial jobs.

"While still pursuing my degree, I used to hawk second-hand clothes. I sold vegetables in the markets, buying them in Kinangop in Nyandarua County and transporting them to Nairobi," he said.

Between 1983 and 1997, he taught at Kangema High School and Dr Kiano Boys School (both in Murang'a), and at Kiarithaini Secondary School in Mathira, Nyeri County.

It is from his teaching salary that he bought a lorry, which he used to start a transport business in Nanyuki town.

In 1997, aged 28, he was elected Laikipia East MP on a Democratic Party (DP) ticket. He said he had to sell off his lorry to raise campaign funds.

He was re-elected in 2002 and 2007, and served as an assistant minister in the Water and Irrigation ministries before being moved to the Ministry of Energy.

Lost governor’s contest

In 2013, he vied for the Laikipia governor’s seat on his Grand National Union (GNU) party but lost to Jubilee Joshua Irungu.

His redemption from the political cold came when Anne Waiguru resigned from the Cabinet in 2015 and President Kenyatta appointed him Cabinet secretary for the Devolution and Planning ministry.

In 2017, President Kenyatta asked him not to contest an elective seat but instead help him in his presidential campaigns. He agreed and was rewarded by being appointed Cabinet secretary for Agriculture.

He was sacked on January 14, 2020 when he threw in his lot with Dr Ruto after the splinter groups Tangatanga and Kieleweke emerged in the ruling Jubilee Party.

Mr Kiunjuri is married to Ms Wangui Kimathi and they have two children.