Is Waiguru the next Kikuyu leader? – Weekly Citizen

Kirinyaga governor Anne Kamotho Wiguru’s meteoric rise continued after the Supreme Court dismissed the petition by Narc Kenya leader Martha Karua challenging her 2017 victory in the gubernatorial race.
Coming barely three weeks after the country’s top political leaders including Uhuru Kenyatta, William Ruto and Raila Odinga graced her wedding to lawyer Kamotho Waiganjo at Kiamugumo Primary School in Gichugu on July 13 2019, the question on the lips of many is whether she is being groomed to become the next Kikuyu political lynchpin after Uhuru?
During her wedding, all the speakers, some of whom were her harshest critics when she served as Devolution cabinet secretary heaped praises on her as an achiever and one destined for bigger things ahead.
Her critics in the past included Raila, who linked her to the first National Youth Service scandal where over Sh790 million was stolen, and even demanded her resignation.
Later, Ruto took her head on over the NYS scandal, and equally demanded her exit from the government.
But in sharp contrast, her wedding was attended by several cabinet and principal secretaries and at least 30 MPs including woman representatives Florence Mutua of Busia and Gladys Wanga, Homa Bay.
Others were Narok senator Ledama ole Kina, Siaya senator James Orengo, Public Service chief administrative secretary Rachel Shebesh, Nairobi politician Beatrice Elachi and former MP Priscilla Nyokabi.
A couple of days before the wedding, Waiguru had severed ties with the Tangatanga group associated with Ruto, and joined the Embrace Movement, a women’s leaders grouping that is marketing the March 9 2018 handshake between the president and Raila.
Word on the ground is that Waiguru is being prepared to become a running mate of a presidential candidate.
Initially, there were rumours Ruto was considering her as running mate but her ditching of Tangatanga pours seems to suggest that she is not his favourite anymore.
While dismissing Karua’s petition, Supreme Court judge Isaac Lenaola noted that the petitioner did not observe the 60-day rule.
In August 2018, Karua suffered a similar blow after the Court of Appeal dismissed her petition challenging Waiguru’s win.
In the apex court ruling read by Lenaola, the judges further directed that each party bears costs of the proceedings at the High Court, Appellate Court and the Supreme Court.

Karua had moved to Court of Appeal a week after Kerugoya High Court dismissed her petition challenging the election of Waiguru.
She challenged Kerugoya High Court’s decision of dismissing her petition.
Judge Lucy Gitari threw out the petition on grounds that it lacked merit and ordered her to pay costs amounting to Sh5 million.
The Narc party leader vied for the Kirinyaga gubernatorial in 2017 general election but lost to Waiguru who garnered 153,353 votes.
Karua got 116,626 votes as previous governor Joseph Ndathi managed a shaming 4,496 votes.
Karua said through Twitter after the ruling that she was not satisfied by court’s decision.
“I did not get justice at the court but aluta continua. The journey to success is long and winding.”
The outcome came three days after the speaker of Kirinyaga county assembly Davis Wachira, an ally of Waiguru, resigned following acrimonious fallout with MCAs.
Githanda in his resignation letter to the county assembly said he was resigning for personal reasons with effect from August 15 2019.
He appealed to the assembly to commence the process of appointing a speaker to ensure smooth transition.
He said he was grateful to Waiguru, all the assembly members and the staff for the cooperation they gave him during the period he served as the speaker and chair of the county assembly service board.
The resignation letter was copied to the clerk of the assembly, the governor and James Murango, leader of the majority.
Reports from the assembly have it that the speaker was irked by the recent changes in the assembly that saw all the elected MCAs removed as committee chairs.

The changes were executed at the behest of Waiguru, as she stamps her authority.
The first to fall victim was the chair budget committee, Davis Mathenge and Elisha Mwangi who chaired the gender committee.
Both are staunch supporters of the governor and seem to have fallen from her favour when they accompanied the health workers to the county headquarters where they were denied entry to the premises during the health workers’ strike.
The MCAs were out to meet the governor and have a dialogue on how the health workers would resume their services in the hospital.
Previously none of the nominated members of the county assembly headed any committee but now are the ones in the lead.
The development committee is now headed by a nominated member, Scolatica Nyawira, education committee, Albima Njoka, delegated committee Rose Njeru, finance and economic planning Kefa Kariuki.
The agriculture livestock and fisheries is headed by Caroline Mureithi, medical services and public health by Lucy Mwaniki, youth and sports Maurine Mwangi, members welfare committee Beatrice Mitaru, public service and administration Daisy Nyaguthii, cooperatives, trade, tourism, industrialisation and enterprise development Ann Wachera.
Waiguru came to the public limelight in 2013 when Uhuru appointed her the Devolution cabinet secretary.
Apart from her stint at the Treasury, which she joined in 2006 as governance adviser, her experience in public service was fairly limited by the time she joined the cabinet.
Neither could she claim strong credentials and experience for having run a large organisation with multiple departments and employees.
But in Uhuru’s first cabinet she was in charge of a docket which was not only one of the largest but also had a huge budget at Sh84 billion.
Waiguru sat for her A-levels in 1989 at the Moi Forces Academy in Nairobi where she studied Maths, Physics and Chemistry.
She graduated from the University of Nairobi in 1993 and worked briefly for Transparency International under John Githongo and Mwalimu Mati. Githongo later became a permanent secretary in the president’s office, advising president Mwai Kibaki on corruption, ethics and governance.

Mati went on to found Mars Group, an NGO that has been auditing government finances, including the national budget. He later unearthed a Sh10 billion discrepancy when then Finance minister Uhuru presented his budget.
However, Uhuru said the discrepancy was a typing error and that no money had been lost.
“The matter was investigated by the parliamentary committee, the International Monetary Fund and the Auditor-General and they found that no money was lost. It was simply an error,” Uhuru said during the 2013 televised debate bringing together all presidential candidates.
After leaving Transparency International, Waiguru joined the Kenya Leadership Institute under