Will Kindiki reclaim Mt Kenya's trust from comfort of his home?

If Deputy President Kithure Kindiki can not go to the mountain, then the mountain must go to Karen. For the whole of this month, Kindiki has been working from his official residence, the “Hustler’s mansion”. 

Seventeen days after he was sworn in, Prof Kindiki made his first public appearance in Embu as the Deputy President where he was coldly received by the crowd which, at some point, jeered senior government officials.

He was accompanied by his boss Dr Ruto in a church service that was also attended by freshly impeached Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua as well as former President Uhuru Kenyatta.

Uhuru and Gachagua were cheered by the congregants.

The same cold treatment was handed to Public Service and Human Capital Development Cabinet Secretary Justin Muturi when he rose to read the presidential speech on January 3 during the burial ceremony of the son of former Embu Senator Levy Kivuti.

And now, Kindiki seems to have adapted the principle of working from home to meet delegates from a region that has grown cold towards the government.

One of the DP’s main messages derived from his speeches to the delegations at Karen is trying to neutralise Gachagua’s popularity, especially in Mt Kenya region, and explain the government’s agenda and why the President has not implemented the Kenya Kwanza coalition’s manifesto.

Kindiki has also been trying to enumerate the government’s achievements, such as stabilising security in the North Rift by dealing with banditry attacks and cattle rustling.

On Wednesday, Kindiki told the over 1500-member delegation from his Tharaka Nithi home county that President Ruto had made extraordinary strides in Kenya’s economic recovery within just two years, outshining the third President, the late Mwai Kibaki.

According to Kindiki, President  Ruto has already  dealt with macro-economic issues such as interest rates and stabilizing  the  Kenya shilling against foreign currency.

“What remains now, over the next two years, is to work on what is music to our ear: Household incomes, job creation, the microeconomic transformation of real sectors from where our people derive their livelihood,” the DP said.

On the same day, Kindiki met with the Nakuru County Executive Committee, 60 MCAs and the county’s first gentleman Sam Mburu to take stock of the implementation of national and county government’s projects and programmes.

In a move that some pundits interpreted as working from home, on January 24 Kindiki met a delegation of over 1500 leaders from Kajiado County. A day before, he had met 30 other MPs form Mt Kenya region. He also hosted  a delegation of 1500 from Taita Taveta County and met with the leadership of Murang’a and Nairobi counties.

On January 17, Kindiki met Embu leaders to try and quell the restless county that has proved to be a thorn in the flesh of President Ruto’s administration.

Kindiki has also started firing salvos  at Gachagua, who he accuses of inciting Mt Kenya region and described him  as distractor and failure. He scoffed at Gachagua over his Ruto-one-term presidency mantra, brushing it off as unrealistic and inconsequential and wondered why making Ruto a one-term president could excite some leaders when he has already achieved a lot.

Exerting authority as the country’s second in command, Kindiki maintained that it would be “rough for Gachagua” to make true his threat. He also reiterated that President Ruto could countermand or overturn his decision claiming “some small people are threatening us just because we normally don’t talk.”

“For the last two years, we have not done anything because our brother was not bothered by the development of anything. The government has got reputational problems in many parts of the country since there is no one to assist the President to track the development agenda, meaning that we have wasted two years,” Kindiki said.

The professor of law was also not so kind to government officials who were opposing the government from within. In an indirect jibe against Muturi, Kindiki said:

“You can’t be in government and sabotage the same government or the Minister frying the flag.”

He told his visitors that he was tracking 168 commitments that the administration made to Kenyans in ten areas for implementation in the next two years and exuded confidence that, Kenyans will applaud the government for its work by the end of that time.

Kindiki’s choice of venue to address the members of public has been interpreted as his strategy to endear himself to the masses and to prepare the way for President Ruto in the restive Mt Kenya region. A section of political analysts have, however, termed the move as counterproductive as it will not yield the intended purpose.

Kamau Wairuri, an analyst, opines that the Deputy President ought to go to the people as opposed to summoning a section of Kenyans to his home.

“His visitors must be welcomed with breakfast and lunch and a bus fare, which is taxpayers money going to an exclusive club of certain people in the society while the ordinary are just onlookers,” Dr Wairuri said.

But former Murang’a Governor Mwangi Iria thinks Kindiki’s strategy is brilliant because the opinion and local leaders briefed Kindiki on the expectations of the people for him to fast track their wish list before visiting the ground with the President.

“The Deputy President is taking stock of the status of development projects in the country since there was nothing that his predecessor was doing about it. This will help him brief his boss on what should be implemented before visiting the people. In the next two or three months, the cosmetic popularity of Gachagua will be a thing of the past,” Wa Iria said.