Politician and businessman Jimi Wanjigi says that Azimio leader Raila Odinga's bid for the chairperson of the African Union Commission (AUC) is a move to exit the political stage in Kenya.
He argues that it is the right time for a new era in Kenyan politics.
In a statement that could jolt Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka and upset President William Ruto, Mr Wanjigi insists that Mr Musyoka should equally exit the stage and nurture young politicians, asserting that he is also part of the old era of politicians.
In an exclusive interview with the Nation , Mr Wanjigi launched a scathing attack on President Ruto, accusing him of running down Kenya's economy.
Q: What's your take on Raila Odinga's quest for the chairpersonship of the African Union Commission?
A: Raila is my good friend and he has made, in my opinion, a very bold decision to exit the political stage in Kenya.
In principle, it is bringing to an end the Lancaster House era of Kenyan politics. What began in 1958 led to our independence and the second liberation, right up to our new constitution in 2010.
It is now a new era. The acceptance that it is new players and the new direction that is going to determine probably 60 years of our politics.
He has made a bold move and led from the front. For him to do that means a lot of his era personalities must also exit with him. Those who still believe they can still hang on his coattails have been passed by time. They must exit with him because this is now a new era of politics. A fresh era of new faces and new ideologies – political and economic ideologies.
Whether he wins or loses, he has exited the stage and now gone to Africa and cannot come back to say he wants to start dealing with Kenya.
He has taken a bold step to take on a constituency of Africa with 1.4 billion people. He wants to be the head of 1.4 billion people in a sense. He cannot come to deal with 50 million Kenyans. We congratulate him for making the step, I wish some of us had a vote, we would have gone to vote for him. That is a bold move and a turning point in politics.
A: The Kenyan government would be extremely foolish if they didn’t support one of our own to the chairperson of the AUC. It would be foolhardy for such a prestigious opportunity to go without the support of the Kenyan government. I don’t want to see anything else beyond that. I don’t want to read politics into it or whether it’s a pact between the two.
Q: We have heard of some jitters over the issue, particularly from some leaders in the Mt Kenya region, and some members of the Azimio coalition. What could be the cause?
A: Those leaders should be honest with themselves. Raila Odinga has built his political career without them. He has fought his way to create the space he has created in Kenyan politics. He is not answerable to anybody. He has left the stage for them. If they feel they can fill it, let them do so. Maybe they feel they have been shortchanged because they don’t have any agenda. If they had an agenda, they would perpetuate the agenda left behind by Raila.
They would not be crumbling and crying. They must stop whining and project a more positive direction. This is a milestone for Kenyan politics and he has opened the way for new leadership and a new paradigm shift to our politics. Why are they not taking it positive?
Q: There are those who believe former President Uhuru Kenyatta, rather than Mr Odinga, should assume the AUC role. What’s your take on this?
A: There are a number of former presidents, why is it Uhuru Kenyatta’s preserve? At least he was president of Kenya and Raila has unfortunately not been president, let him go and head that commission. I think he deserves it for all the struggles he has done for Kenya.
City billionaire Jimi Wanjigi (right) and Orange Democratic Movement leader Raila Odinga during a past event.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
A: A very progressive one. They say this is now the time to find a new era of Kenya's politics. An era I believe even the current government cannot manage because they are also products of that past era.
If you look at the collective politics of Kenya Kwanza for example, with its head, he was born in an era of the second liberation of which he was even against the new constitution. So he is part of the old order as a lot of other Azimio leaders, unfortunately. This is now a time for a new kind of politics. Politics that will bring out a lot more participation than we saw in the last General election. Which had the lowest turnout in the era of multi-party elections since 1992.
We are hoping that this now creates a chance for a much greater participation of the citizens of this country in our elective politics. It's time to redefine politics for the next 60 years.
Q: Do you think the other Azimio principals have what it takes to lead the opposition against the Kenya Kwanza regime?
A: He has left the stage for them. If they feel they can fill it, let them do so.
Q: Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka has stated that it's his turn to take up the mantle. His allies argue that it's time for Raila Odinga to endorse him for the presidency in 2027. What's your take?"
A: Kalonzo should stop wasting our time. He is part of that old era. Kalonzo has nothing new to offer Kenyans. We have one problem in this country, William Samoei Ruto and Kalonzo cannot remove William Ruto and even if he did, he cannot solve the problems that Ruto is helping create which is economic meltdown. He is part of the same era, the Lancaster house era of our politics and he should simply follow Raila, and retire honourably. If he believes he is a Kamba King, he should create a new era of a younger generation who would fit into this new era of politics.
Kalonzo is probably one of us because I’ve never been elected but he is probably the one who was elected earliest in that era. I think he has been in the country’s elective politics for nearly 40 years. What new thing is he going to bring?
Q: He has backed Mr Odinga in the last three elections; don’t you think the ODM leader owes him political support?
A: There is nothing in politics about owing this owing that. Many of us have also been part of that owing. Kalonzo can never say that Raila owes him as though he was doing it for getting nothing. Was he not getting a seat, two times a Deputy President in 2013 and 2017, while in 2022 he was meant to be the Prime Cabinet Secretary? The support was not for nothing. Some of us stuck out our necks but were getting no positions. We were persecuted a lot.
Kalonzo must sell an agenda and he has no agenda to sell. He should follow Raila and leave our politics.
A: The country is going to the dogs. Economically, we are sinking by the day. Do not be fooled by the lies of Kenya kwanza. The lies that are coming from William Samoei Ruto. This economy is tethering at the edge of a cliff, every single day. He told us he is taking our taxes and not borrowing yet he has borrowed more in this period that Uhuru never did in ten years he was in power in terms of period. What he has borrowed in six months is more that Uhuru ever did in six months and yet he was saying he was never going to borrow. He is rolling over even the Eurobond to get even more loans at a higher cost.
Our issue in this country has been the debt service ratio. How much of our axes are going to the repayment of debts? He is not retiring debts but increasing the costs of our debt servicing.
Figures from the Controller of Budget say that from our consolidated funds or taxes and debts, development budget of Sh 793 billion, almost Sh 800 billion, we have only in six months taken out Sh 70 billion, less than 10 percent has been withdrawn for our development.
That means Ministers are literally not working. In six months they have only spent less than 10 percent because the bulk of the money is going to debt. The president said 7 out of 10 shillings are going to debt but he is increasing it daily with these very expensive debts on Eurobond and domestic money.
So anybody borrowing today is borrowing at over 25/26 percent. Who can afford it? You are killing private investors. The government is not doing development, and counties are not receiving money, so what is fueling growth and children are being born every day, and others coming out of school every day? There is massive unemployment and you are killing the economy of the country because there is nothing fueling growth.
We are raising money for nothing else but to pay people outside for money that never came to benefit us. Yet he has refused to make the hard decision to audit that debt and say we are not going to pay what we did not take legally. He is sinking us to the ground every single day.
Q: Apart from auditing of the debts, what is the immediate solution to this problem?
A: He cannot continue paying these illegal debts and taking more debts. Increasing debt service ratios is destroying us more and more.
The only solution is; that he must stop paying any more odious debts. Any debt that did not come to us according to our laws.
That did not support our development and never approved by parliament. He must suspend – like the Eurobond. It never funded any project. We don’t know what it did but we borrowed it.
A: The unfortunate thing is that he is one of them. He used to support this. But in reality that is what a leader does. You say you cannot burden your people with such a problem. This is the cause of the high cost of living and lack of development in this country.
We are destroying the lives of citizens in this country. We are now facing social challenges in this country. This is the cause of the high taxes we are being burdened with.
He swore to better the lives of Kenyans and he has to make good decisions to remove this burden from Kenyans.
We must start putting questions about the constitutionalism of his tenure. He is breaking so much law and we must ask ourselves whether he is telling us that we have no options.
A: They ought to be doing this to enhance development but it is unfortunate that in their entire period, only Sh 70 billion of our development budget of Sh 800 billion has been taken from our taxes, from the consolidated funds to fund development.
We are paying a bureaucracy, executive for doing nothing. They are earning salaries for nothing. Are joyriders on our sweat and this sweat is shrinking because we are producing less and less.
Should they answer to the constitution of this country or are we going to have joyriders for another four years? They cannot continue being joyriders. We must ask ourselves some constitutional questions. There is something you are going to see before the end of March that will culminate into a three months’ deadline that will answer that question why we as the sovereign people of Kenya have more powers than we think.
Q: What is this that is going to happen, legal actions, protests or revolution sort of?
A: Our constitution is very clear about the power of the people. We donate power to the institution of parliament and to the Executive. In the near future you are going to see how we are going to exercise that power because it is our right.
A: One thing that I have generally appreciated about William Samoei Ruto is that he has not been very willing to use the arm of the police – DCI, to crack down on dissent against him. We saw some recklessness during maandamano which was very unfortunate. But generally speaking, we don’t see the oppressive nature we witnessed during the last regime where if you spoke people were hounding you. That is so far, and we hope he maintains that because it is our democratic right to have differences of opinion with him and on issues in our country.
Other than that we are seeing a replica of what he used to criticize, what he used to say were the products created by a dynasty.
He is perpetuating it – theft, massive taxation and extremely huge debts.
Other than using the hard hand of the police, the other things he is even moving at a faster rate than he used to criticise.
A: He has no choice. He has even introduced a new form of taxation that he does not even take to parliament. It is called government services. The e-Citizen is a form of taxation because he is making you pay for government services. It is a way of revenue collection because he needs the money. So he is hitting us with services which should be our right with more and more money. He is making us pay for our rights as citizens, that’s why at one time they even thought of making us pay for our ID cards.
Because that’s what they are thinking about, collecting more taxes.
But the debt problem is not going away so he is going to continue with more taxation. He’s frightened of debt default; he believes the default would run him out of office. So he’d rather impose punitive actions on all our lives and collapse the economy before that takes place.
Q: What are your future political plans after IEBC slammed the brakes on your presidential ambition in 2022?
A: What happened in 2022 was unfortunate. They say God's timing is always the best time. I believe this is a new era of our politics. The revolution we are going through now is about our economy and our economic revolution.
We are seeking economic liberation. This is our time for economic revolution so that we return the dignity of Kenyans. We are going to do that. I believe I have an agenda and gravitas for it, and clarity to achieve it.
We want to see more changes. We want to change the dynamics of our politics to a political and economic ideology to enhance economic liberation.
We have gained political freedom and democratic space in Kenya to a very large extent but there are a few teething issues that we must address.
We have a solid foundation and now it’s the time for a new era, that era is where I believe I belong and it’s about our economic liberation.
A: I want to tell Kenyans that in every problem that you have in your home, with your child, any problem with your economic life, whether depressed, it is one William Samoei Ruto, nothing else.
