The win by John Njuguna Wanjiku in the Kiambaa by-election is a game changer in Kenyan politics, especially this being the bedrock of the Jubilee Party. It’s also a definition of true political empowerment.
Njuguna, 36, was born and raised by a single mother who is now deceased. He went to Gatatha Primary School and later joining Thigiu High School, in Kiambu, before pursing International Relations at the Kenya Methodist University.
He was employed at Barclays Bank for about a year, after which he resigned to start a vehicle spare parts import business. He later started importing cars.
While at school, Njuguna had to sell the chicken at his Gatono village, over and above picking coffee cherries as a farm hand to fend for his family.
He served as a interim Jubilee Party’s youth representative in Kiambu county. In 2013, he became Paul Koinange’s campaign manager and he went on to win the seat twice.
Between 2018-20, he started his groundwork to vie for the Kiambaa seat since he didn’t have a lot of resources to cover as much ground as possible.
Having learnt from his late mother, who worked in flower farms of not despising small beginnings, Njuguna used his skills as an evangelist of his local church to appeal to the masses. It wasn’t surprising to see him pray immediately he was declared winner at the Karuri tallying centre.
His win was quite unlikely. He suffered for it when upon inviting the DP to officiate a boda boda Sacco fundraiser at Kawaida together with Kariri Njama, he was abducted by the police days before the function.
They took him from his car, brandished their IDs, and took him to their commander who threatened him and ordered that he stops propagating the hustler nation narrative.
He was to be in their custody from around 4pm to 2am after which they abandoned him in Burnt Forest near Kapsabet. He reported the incident at Kondoo police station, and then Kasarani police station where his car was. Koinange was the chairman of the National Assembly’s Security Committee. He died early this year and that’s the seat fell vacant.
In a rather interesting turn of events, all the major candidates moved from the hustler nation to other parties, with Njama going on to win the Jubilee ticket through a boardroom interview and out of a scientific poll.
The Kiambaa parliamentary seat has always been held by names from big families such as Mbiyu Koinange, Njenga Karume, Kamau Icharia, Stanley Githunguri and Paul Koinange. Even in the Jubilee primaries, there was June and Lenah Koinange, ready to take over the mantle.
Njuguna started his campaigns with a rating of a paltry seven per cent against Njama’s 70 per cent but went ahead to beat him in the mains polls.
Njama, on the other hand, seemed to have shored up the dwindling fortunes of the Jubilee Party as well, only that it cost him the seat eventually. This brings us to the conclusion that a political party can make a weak candidate win, and a strong candidate can shore up the fortunes of a party.
The best combination is definitely a strong candidate in a strong party. Njuguna has been described by his team as clean hearted, faithful, available and teachable, clearly demonstrating the importance of having good people joining politics.
Lee Kuan Yew, who served as Singapore Prime Minister from 1959-90, in his last national day address put it aptly when he said, “Get our ablest and our best into politics. One key requirement is let’s avoid hypocrisy. Try and get the government on the cheap and you will end up with a cheap government and you will be sorry for yourselves.
The first task of the government is to equalise opportunities, not equalise results. What made the difference in Singapore was that a group of men in 1963-64 we decided that we are going to live only one life. If we have to die, we will die for a cause. That made Singapore possible. We couldn’t be placated and settle for less.
To settle personally for a way out for yourself was easy. You vote in jokers, cranks, weak men, charlatans with some gift of the garb, you ran a very serious risk of losing everything you have. Your future really depends on what you make of it. The govt can really give you that framework, (that) gives expression to the will of the people, but the people must have the will. If you don’t have it, there is nothing a govt can do.”
The hustler nation versus the dynasties, status quo constitutional change ideological divide is characterised by aristocrats, versus democrats, totalitarianism versus building strong institutions of governance and in terms of economics, trickle down versus bottom up approach.
In the end, what matters is that those who define power are the ones who pursue to win it incrementally, within the very uncertainty of its intangibility.
