Prof Kithure Kindiki yesterday became the fourth academic to become Kenya’s second-in-command.
Prof Kithure Kindiki is the fourth university lecturer to walk out of lecture halls, join politics and ascend to the second highest office in Kenya.
His installation on Friday sets him on the path walked previously by Mwai Kibaki, Dr Josphat Njuguna Karanja and Prof George Saitoti, albeit with various levels of success.
Of the previous three holders of the office of vice-president, as it was then known, only Kibaki did not have a PhD and an academic prefix before his name. However, he is the only one who eventually rose to become President.
At the age of 31, Kibaki left his teaching job at Uganda’s Makerere University in 1960 to take up the position of executive officer of Kanu as the country prepared for independence. He had had a flourishing academic career before Tom Mboya persuaded him to ditch the chalk.
Following his falling out of favour with President Daniel Moi after the infamous 1988 mlolongo elections, Karanja was picked as his successor while Kibaki was handed the Health ministry docket.
He would famously resign on Christmas Day in 1991 to found the Democratic Party and struggle to be President in subsequent elections. He lost in 1992 and 1997 but eventually triumphed in 2002 and was re-elected in 2007.
Karanja made history as the first vice-chancellor of the University of Nairobi when it was awarded its charter in 1970, breaking away from the East African University. Karanja was also the first Kenyan to head the institution.
The academic is probably best known for the manner of his exit. His removal after a vote of no-confidence, in a way, is reminiscent of the recent impeachment of Rigathi Gachagua, in that it was orchestrated and taken through sludge and skulduggery in Parliament.
Though their predicaments are under different constitutional dispensations, there is an eerie resemblance.
Former Embakasi MP David Mwenje was at the time the star who played the role that Kibwezi MP Mwengi Mutuse played last month in felling Mr Gachagua.
Following the exit of Karanja, Moi picked Saitoti to deputise him. The former professor of mathematics at the UoN would serve as VP until 2002, with a hiatus after the 1997 election when Moi operated for months without a deputy.
He would reappoint him at a roadside meeting, sarcastically adding that the appointment would not add the amount of ugali in Kenyan’s sufurias.
Saitoti, who died in June 2012, was famously known as the lecturer who rose from driving a battered Volkswagen Beetle to becoming one of the wealthiest Kenyan politicians.
Fast rise
Prof Kindiki had a fast rise through academia as an international lawyer, but came to public limelight when he represented President William Ruto at the International Criminal Court at The Hague where he faced crimes against humanity charges in 2012.
He attended Irunduni Primary School and then Lenana School before graduating with a law degree from Moi University.
He pursued his masters in the same field at the University of Pretoria, South Africa and earned his PhD in international law from the same university.
He was a lecturer of law at Moi University between 2002 and 2003 and later at UoN from 2003 to 2011. At UoN, he also served as the head of the department of Public law and associate dean of the School of Law between 2007 and 2010.
During his academic career, he was on various occasions a visiting lecturer at the University of Budapest in Hungary, University of Sao Paulo in Brazil and his former university in South Africa. He has published over 30 books and academic article in peer reviewed journals.
His becoming DP is the culmination of a friendship forged initially as an advocate-client one. In his speech, Prof Kindiki pledged to be loyal to the President. The jury is out as to how their relationship is shaped out.
