Businessman Jimi Wanjigi is a master of charm. For a man who has spent most of his life striking business deals worth billions of shillings, he is not a novice in winning you to his side. “Are you the reporter?” He singles me out from my crew he had met earlier.
“Your name? Nice to meet you,” says Wanjigi, with a sharp smile, exposing a set of striking white teeth that make you feel at ease.
He does not have a domineering presence. The businessman is easy with his words, speaking as if he is gently passing fragile matter from his mouth. Even with strangers, he would talk with his hand on their shoulder. One on one, the billionaire persona melts away and he only becomes Jimi.
Perfectly fitting on his frame is a grey suit with a white and purple checked shirt. Nothing fancy, but he is smart enough to tell you he is a man of class. He has no ring, no wristwatch or golden chains hanging on him. He does not wear a tie.
“He is a cool boss. Yeye hukua kama kijana (he is like a young man),” says a janitor after we arrived at his Kwacha House offices in Westlands, Nairobi.
The premises would be fit for yoga and meditation retreat. Surrounding the buildings are different trees and flowering plants that give the location some forest-like splendour.
Inside the offices, the walls tell the story of Wanjigi’s family. Pictures of his wife, children, siblings and parents are almost everywhere. The interior decor does not have the glitz of golden statures, but oil paints taking up huge sections of walls and antiques lined on shelves.
“Everything of beauty around here is my wife’s work. She did an amazing job making this place feel like home because we spend a lot of time here,” says Wanjigi.
However, hidden from prying eyes are cameras tucked inside dense flower shrubs and fingerprint access doors only accessible to workers.
Also missing are hints that Wanjigi is the son of former Cabinet minster Maina Wanjigi, who never shied from speaking the truth. The former Kamukunji MP was in May 1990 relieved of his ministerial position when he criticised the government for flattening informal slums, then known as Muoroto.
It is this second home that a contingent of more than 20 heavily armed anti-terror and regular police officers were caught on camera enforcing an arrest warrant against the businessman on January 17.
After an 18-hour siege, police officers used a sledgehammer to blast open the door and arrest Wanjigi.
A few hours after his arrest, the High Court issued an order restraining the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and the Director of Public Prosecutions from instituting, arresting or continuing with any criminal charges against the petitioners in relation to a land dispute.
When asked whether he thought the president was behind the trouble that had bedeviled him, he said: “I doubt anybody has the courage to come for me without his authority. None of that would have happened without his knowledge.”
Wanjigi’s frustrations
But Wanjigi’s frustrations not only come from the government, but the ODM party, where he is a life member – a thing that seems not to mean much to those holding the party’s steering wheel.
Challenging ODM leader Raila Odinga for the party’s presidential ticket is perhaps a bold move by the businessman. For many party followers, history has shown their willingness to put their lives on the line under the orders of their lieutenant, who also represents the face of the party and its interest.
Although ODM has remained one of the few consistent parties in national politics for more than 15 years, and has participated in three elections, the party’s democracy remains rooted in the steering hand of Raila, who has been the presidential flag bearer of the party since 2007.
“When did Raila Odinga become the presidential candidate of ODM? Where was this decided? When did it happen that it has excluded all of us who are interested in this,” poses Wanjigi.
The businessman speaks softly, only raising his voice and changing his hands from the praying pose to a fist when talking about his party leader.
“In established democracies, normally when you lose an election, you hand over to other people to try in the next election. You can’t be a perpetual candidate. If they feel in any manner or form that he is still the candidate, subject us to a democratic process,” says Wanjigi.
Interesting that a man who claims to have gifted Kenya its fourth president and first deputy president would talk of democracy. Like an oligarch, Wanjigi explains how he brought Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto together, convinced them to form a coalition and even assisted them to come up with a manifesto.
And when they betrayed the ideals of his manifesto, Wanjigi explains that he differed with Uhuru and Ruto on principle, and went looking for Raila, who he provided with enough ammunition to blast the Jubilee. Throughout the interview, he insists that he is a democrat.
In crafting the UhuRuto government, the businessman was perhaps reliving the ideals envisioned by his father in June 1973, when he told Parliament: “Unless you have a good education to which every child has access and that can be harnessed to (enable them to) reach their full potential, you cannot build a sound population and a sound nation. It is about time somebody got the message that we want free primary education.”
Last year, ODM called for applications of those interested in the party’s presidential ticket. The process was later suspended to focus on pushing the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) agenda.
With ODM’s National Delegates Conference (NDC) slated for February 25 and 26, Wanjigi is concerned with what he says is a breach in the party’s constitution of intentionally omitting the agenda of having delegates nominate a presidential candidate.
“You are given a rule book, which is the constitution. Follow it. You cannot ignore that some of us are bona fide members of this party and we believe in it. I don’t want to leave ODM. Why would I want to leave? The way I am treated is the same way anybody who will be seeking any seat is going to be treated,” argues Wanjigi.
Having spent much of his life behind the political scenes, he says what keeps him awake at night is “the dream of changing Kenya.”
For him, the earth on which Kenya is built is rotten to the core. He believes a new system steered by a people who are politically conscious is what can bring dignity back to Kenyans.
“I am what you call a change agent. I can even be an insurgent within my own government. You save Kenya by saving them from the burden of economic woes and political illiteracy. 100 per cent of our lives is politics and we need to care,” says Wanjigi.
Also in his list of fights is his push against families he says have monopolised the political scene since independence. For him, dealing with this problem is a form of political liberation.
“Those two families, namely Kenyatta and Odinga, have been on every single ballot since independence. I am very clear with my party leader that this is not his time,” argues Wanjigi.
He says the journey to the election is still long, and he is ready to work with friends to see his name on the ballot. He says he is ready to challenge the NDC in court if the party won’t withdraw the initial notice and issue a new one with all necessary agendas as per the party’s constitution. “I fear nothing. Failure is a consequence of life. If you are doing something in life, that is going to be part of it,” says Wanjigi.
On why he has received internal frustrations from his own party, he says: “I represent a change they don’t want.”
Whether Wanjigi’s dreams to be a servant leader are genuine or just a politician’s empty words is something I couldn’t judge through that winner’s smile.
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