Deputy President Kithure Kindiki addresses journalists at Harambee House Annex in Nairobi on November 7, 2024.
Deputy President Kithure Kindiki’s address to the nation on Thursday laid it bare that he has an express agenda of undoing his predecessor Rigathi Gachagua's attributes and endear President William Ruto to Kenyans.
It was not lost to pundits that Kindiki started his address by ridiculing Gachagua's maiden speech on September 13, 2022 after he took his oath of office where he gave the outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta a tongue lashing in the glare of global cameras.
Though Gachagua was to later insist that his speech was founded on his “truthfulness philosophy”, Kindiki mocked him, saying “personally I did not find it befitting to engage in many speeches on November 1 when I took assumption of office oath due to the official nature of the event”.
Jubilee Party Secretary-General Jeremiah Kioni said Kindiki comes to office carrying dangerous perceptions.
“If I were him, I would sanction an independent in-depth national ground analysis without relying on official reports that security people feed the government with... those reports sometimes fear speaking truth to power. It is only unadulterated truth that will set him free,” Kioni said.
“The prevailing pulse on the ground is that you are either helping the people escape Kenya Kwanza Alliance anti-people rule or helping it continue making people miserable,” Kioni added.
Kioni said Kindiki ascends to office carrying the perception of being a “Yes man”.
Former Gatanga MP Nduati Ngugi, who has since become one of Gachagua’s point-men in Murang'a County, said Kindiki mirrors President Ruto’s commiserations.
“Listening to Kindiki, I got insights of what President Ruto meant when he said he has been lonely at the top... Kindiki in his speech indirectly revealed that President Ruto wished him to succeed where Gachagua allegedly failed,” said Ngugi.
Kindiki said he would help President Ruto achieve the bottom-up economic model for hustlers, unite the country and implement development. He further promised to ensure devolution funding is restructured to eliminate delays in disbursing the funds.
“That address sounded like an official brief by the president. There is the politics aspect of it where for him to achieve all that for the favour of Ruto's second term bid, he needs to win acceptability, goodwill and trust, the three things this administration is acutely without,” Ngugi said.
Former Kiambu Governor Ferdinand Waititu said Kindiki should appreciate the fact that Kenyans can read through the deception of a rule that is peeling off and re-coating its old skin to look new.
“The government has an acceptability crisis but we are there to support Kindiki in Mt Kenya by appealing to our people to think development instead of politics,” said Kirinyaga Jubilee Chairman Muriithi Kang’ara.
Baragwi MCA in the Kirinyaga County Assembly, David Mathenge, offered: “No matter how many times they swear Kindiki, our people's Deputy President is Gachagua.”
Former presidential candidate Peter Kenneth says “this government will be in for a rude shock since voters have come to treat their 2022 trust with raw contempt... they have moved on and are currently shopping for a new identity to contest 2027”.
Kenneth doubted whether Kindiki would manage to sweet-talk the region back to Ruto’s fold.
“We are getting our priorities wrong because we are supposed to be addressing real issues of corruption, impunity, abductions, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, over taxation and tyranny,” said Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah.
He says the crisis the government is in cannot be addressed through impeachments, de-whipping and politically based replacement of office bearers.
“If those happenings have the deceptive eye on 2027, if impeachments do not give Kenyans a new start that seeks transformative change... if new office bearers do not come to undo the damage of over taxation and joblessness... then we are doing nothing,” he said.
Murang’a Senator Joe Nyutu added: “How he establishes rapport with the grassroots will be key. Kenyatta invested his trust in elected leaders who proceeded to be rejected by voters. In this business, you better fall out with elected leaders but win over the people.”
The Democratic Congress youth's national leader Gladys Njoroge said Kindiki first needs to repair his damaged relations with Gen Z and families mourning abductions and extrajudicial killings that were executed when he was interior CS.
“Kindiki should know that if the government attempts to table a draconian Finance Bill 2025, there will be opposition,” he said.
Elders in Mt Kenya led by Kiama kia Ma national patron Kung’u Muigai told The Weekly Review that elders have resolved to support Kindiki.
Political scientist Gasper Odhiambo said the toughest task Kindiki faces is that of whitewashing Gachagua’s influence that has soared following his impeachment.
“We should not lie to ourselves that Kindiki has been appointed the DP for any other reason but trying to consolidate Mt Kenya voters for Ruto 2027. Gachagua was openly and brazenly taking the region away from Ruto. Politics is a game of numbers and running-mates must come with numbers,” Odhiambo said.
He said if Kindiki will find it hard guaranteeing President Ruto at least two million votes from Mt Kenya, then he should kiss his political career goodbye in 2027.
“To rejuvenate himself, given that he will only be 55, Kindiki might have to contest the presidency against his boss, hoping to bag the Mt Kenya numbers that would boost him in possible post-election coalition talks,” Odhiambo offered.
