If former MP Moses Kuria was to represent Kenya in a run, hop and jump tournament, he would most likely get disqualified.
And it would not be because the former economic advisor to President William Ruto does not know how to do it; only that he might run towards the North, hop towards the East, jump towards the West and land anywhere near South, hence getting disqualified.
The biggest problem wouldn’t even be the process but rather his utterances as he pulls that comic sport, as manifested in the many headlines about him saying things recklessly.
One can imagine the commentator in the game struggling to keep pace, saying “here comes Kuria...this way, that way...gets off radar, re-emerges off the pitch and the red flag is up...it is no jump and he is in a verbal rage”.
In the past three years, Mr Kuria has rapidly transitioned from a failed Kiambu County gubernatorial aspirant to Trade and Public Service Cabinet Secretary to President’s economic adviser to a free political agent.
In the latest role, he has declared interest in being Jubilee Party secretary-general, then amended it to being a Nairobi gubernatorial hopeful, changed to Mt Kenya kingpin on his Chama Cha Kazi party before now saying he has joined United Democratic Alliance (UDA) to contest the Gatundu South seat.
Mr Kung’u Muigai, the Agikuyu community’s chair of the Kiama kia Ma cultural group, told the Sunday Nation : “Kuria is my neighbour in the village and I can tell you he is one complex mind to understand.”
Mr Kuria has in the past wilfully talked his way into police cells, courts and near prison doors for hate speech charges. He has also publicly used unprintable words against institutions and personalities.
Former Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
Recently, Democracy for Citizens Party (DCP) leader Rigathi Gachagua was a victim of Mr Kuria’s verbal tirades when he was publicly told off in unprintable words.
Mr Gachagua had dismissed Mr Kuria as a “traitor”, as some believe that through splitting the United Opposition vote, he helped the ruling UDA party bag the Mbeere North legislative seat in the November by-election.
This forced Murang’a based DCP youth activist Mixson Gitau to retort that “it is only a newly born Mùgikuyu who doesn’t know how sometimes Mr Kuria’s tongue can beat an electric mortar in speed”.
Born in 1971, Mr Kuria grew up to become a banker who at one point worked in the Gulf.
He became a household name through politics. In the Gatundu South parliamentary contest in 1997 when he supported Moses Mwihia who was vying against Uhuru Kenyatta.
Mr Mwihia orchestrated a narrative of being abducted and possibly murdered, and the electorate chose to vote for him in absentia to punish Mr Kenyatta, only for the candidate to resurface to take oath of office.
Mr Kuria rode on that tactical prowess into President Mwai Kibaki’s political advisory pool in 2007.
He remained in the backstreets of politics until 2014 when fate claimed the life of Gatundu South MP Joseph Ngugi. In the by-election that ensued, he bagged the seat.
He served until 2022 when he graduated into a Kiambu gubernatorial candidate, where he performed poorly by garnering 25,000 votes in a contest that was won by Kimani Wamatang,i who scooped 348,371 votes.
