During his heyday as Kiambu governor, Ferdinand Waititu was a boisterous man of means.
Then, on December 19, 2019, the county assembly impeached him, accusing him of siphoning over Sh588 million from the county coffers through proxies and friends. The Senate later upheld the impeachment.
Since then, Mr Waititu has been in court trying to clear his name.
On May 7, 2020, the former governor told the Nation that things had really gone wrong for him and people he thought were his friends had abandoned him—it had dawned on him what he had were sycophants, no friends.
“I now understand politics better. When I was governor of Kiambu, I used to get a lot of calls from different people, especially politicians, seeking various favours from me. Some I built their careers and helped them win but now they don’t pick my calls,” Mr Waititu lamented at the time.
“I have stopped calling them, but that is the nature of politics. People call you when you are in a position to help them but not when you are out of power,” he added.
Things appear to have gotten worse for the former Kabete MP who now claims that even some of his friends, with whom he campaigned for President William Ruto and his deputy Rigathi Gachagua, are pushing him away from power.
“I am one of those people who campaigned for President Ruto and his deputy. I even donated my cars, including a Toyota Tundra that was commonly referred to as The Beast because of its fancy modifications. Now I am an isolated man and it seems I have been forgotten. Those close to the President do not want to see me speaking to him directly,” Mr Waititu told the Nation on Sunday.
The vehicle is one of his assets that the High Court recently allowed the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) to freeze on the grounds that they were proceeds of corruption when he was Kabete MP and Kiambu governor.
The frozen assets, including motor vehicles, land and other properties, are worth Sh1.9 billion according to court documents.
Mr Waititu believes some of his problems stem from supporting President Ruto’s bid for the presidency.
He says Delta Hotel and the former Jamii Bora building were financed through borrowing from two banks and he is ready to prove this. The hotel is lonely with few visitors. Some of the fixtures are rusting.
We sat on sofas on the first floor of the hotel. There is no ostentatious display, and the once powerful politician’s political capital seems to have worn thin. His phone barely rings, and when it does, he has to ask who is on the other end.
Unlike before, when he would be accompanied by bodyguards and fanatical supporters, this time he was only accompanied by three friends, one of whom he said was a former ward representative.
For a large part of the interview, Mr Waititu is reluctant to speak freely, but you can tell that he wants to say something without upsetting the leaders of his party—UDA. After much probing, he finally speaks freely.
“You see, the President promised that after coming to power he would ensure that all cases that were politically instigated during the tenure of former President Uhuru Kenyatta were thrown out or withdrawn, and I have seen most of them thrown out and the accused exonerated. I am now wondering what happened to me because in some cases I was involved in, some witnesses even recanted the evidence they had given in court,” Mr Waititu says.
He believes his problems intensified two months before the General Election when he endorsed President Ruto as Mr Kenyatta unleashed the EACC on him.
Hoping to revive his political fortunes with his appointment to the Nairobi River Commission, the Law Society of Kenya went to the High Court and obtained a temporary injunction barring him from taking up the post, claiming he had been legally impeached and was now unfit to hold public office.
On August 21, 2022, Mr Waititu became a laughing stock in Githunguri, Kiambu when President Ruto and his deputy Gachagua graced a thanksgiving service at PCEA Church Gathiruini for Githunguri MP Gathoni wa Muchomba.
As Mr Gachagua lined up the top Mt Kenya leaders, including Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro, Naivasha MP Jane Kihara, former Kandara MP Alice Wahome and Kikuyu MP Kimani Ichung’wah, who were tasked by the UDA to counter Mr Kenyatta during the campaigns, Mr Waititu was not invited.
The former governor says he has now found solace in his family as he continues with the struggle to clear his name.
“I have very few people I can call friends now and my two wives and children are the ones I can say are closest to me,” Mr Waititu says.
