POLITICS
The man from Tharaka with a big job
Meru Senator Kiraitu Murungi (left) and Tharaka Nithi senator Prof Kindiki Kithure during a news conference after the Mt Kenya East political caucus meeting at Karen Holiday Homes in Nairobi April 4, 2013. PHOTO/FILE NATION
By JULIUS SIGEI jsigei@ke.nationmedia.com And BILLY MUIRURI bmuiruri@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Sunday, May 12 2013 at 00:10
IN SUMMARY
- The Tharaka Nithi senator’s role in scheduling government Bills and Motions and determining the order in which they will be presented will see the 40-year-old interact frequently with the President and Mr Ruto.
- Described by those who know him as a man who has outgrown his age at every level, at 32 Prof Kindiki became the associate dean at the University of Nairobi’s School of Law.
One of the most memorable scenes in the 10th Parliament was the day in August 2009 when then Ikolomani MP Boni Khalwale led the charge to censure Finance minister Amos Kimunya over the controversial sale of the Grand Regency Hotel.
The MP’s performance and his passionate refrain “Kimunya must go” established the gynaecologist as one of the leading lawmakers of the 10th Parliament. He has since taken the battle to anybody who challenged him -- and won.
So it must have been humbling for the “bullfighter” to be taken by the horns on Wednesday as senators voted to replace him on the key Finance, Commerce and Economic Affairs committee -- which he had intended to chair -- and by the team on Implementation, which will ensure resolutions of the House are carried out by the Executive.
The man who led the initiative to tackle Dr Khalwale was Senate Majority Leader Abraham Kithure Kindiki, a political greenhorn whose meteoric rise has confounded both friend and foe.
Seen as the small man in the big office because of his diminutive frame and boyish looks, the charming teacher-turned-politician has, in a year, pulled a fast one to become one of the most influential people in Uhuru Kenyatta’s administration.
His position in the Senate, the institution that can impeach the Head of State, accords him direct access to the President and his Deputy William Ruto.
The Tharaka Nithi senator’s role in scheduling government Bills and Motions and determining the order in which they will be presented will see the 40-year-old interact frequently with the President and Mr Ruto.
Perhaps it is with this in mind that he felt that his role was being undermined by Dr Khalwale who had switched loyalty to the rival Cord coalition even though the Kakamega senator was nominated to the two committees on the basis of a deal between Jubilee and Musalia Mudavadi’s United Democratic Forum, the party on whose ticket Dr Khalwale was elected.
“The most grievous of crimes, according to us, which is against the spirit of democracy and the Political Parties Act, is that despite an existing agreement between UDF and the Jubilee coalition, Dr Khalwale actually proposed and supported the minority candidates for both the chair and the vice-chair in the Implementation Committee,” charged Prof Kindiki.
Not even Dr Khalwale’s defence that co-operation did not amount to a coalition could save him from the wrath of the former lecturer at the University of Nairobi’s Public Law Department who was the Jubilee pointman in the Mt Kenya East region during the campaigns.
His position is seen as a reward for braving the onslaught from Kiraitu Murungi’s Alliance Party of Kenya, which threatened to sweep the Meru, Tharaka-Nithi and Embu counties.
The senator is the son of a Methodist cleric and a housewife, a background that points to a disciplined upbringing, a virtue he enlisted to excel in his academic work.
Described by those who know him as a man who has outgrown his age at every level, at 32 Prof Kindiki became the associate dean at the University of Nairobi’s School of Law.
“In Standard Eight he scored straight As in all subjects and was the best pupil in Meru. Like Okonkwo who had washed his hands and could dine with kings, Kithure could sit with elders in marriage negotiations. His opinions were respected at an early age,” his elder brother, Prof Nyagah Kindiki of Moi University, told the Sunday Nation.
He would later return to test his popularity when he vied for the Senate, and he passed the test, securing 94 per cent of the vote.
Back in his Irunduni village in Mukothima Ward in Tharaka, Kindiki senior’s family established a niche for themselves as one of the most learned in the region, with all the nine siblings attaining at least a Master’s degree.
After finishing top in the pioneer Moi University law class in 1998, Kithure was retained as a graduate assistant before receiving a scholarship to study for his Master of Law and Ph.D at the University of Pretoria.
There, his name is perched at the top of a roll of honour for setting the record of completing his doctorate degree in two-and-half years.
“That record has not been broken since the inception of the school in 1918. And mark you, I was not a full-time student, and I was newly married,” he told the Sunday Nation in his spacious office on the third floor of the Kenyatta International Conference Centre.
Fast forward to 2008 and Prof Kindiki, in another first, would resign from a senior government position “as a matter of principle” after only 100 days in office.
He had been appointed Secretary of Cohesion in the Justice Ministry at a salary of Sh500,000, but complained there was no political will to address the huge challenges facing the country at the time, including the resettlement of Internally Displaced Persons.
“Even my minister Martha Karua at that time was not concerned with the resettlement of IDPs. She had just missed the Deputy Prime Minister’s job and was sulking all over town.”
He went back to his teaching job at the university on “a salary of about Sh100,000”. But even as he scaled the academic heights, he did not lose sight of his legal work. “I practise law but only on a selective basis and take only the most serious cases.”
In addition to the charges facing Mr Ruto at the International Criminal Court, he has taken up work at the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes in Washington, the Comesa Court of Justice in Lusaka and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
He has also had teaching consultancies at institutions like the Central European University in Budapest and the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil.
Prof Kindiki had earlier been expected to vie for the Tharaka parliamentary seat, but his driving ambition led him to the Senate. Area MP Mburi Muiru had received praise from constituents for improving education standards so Prof Kindiki decided to support him for a second term while he went for the Senate seat.
The need for regional balancing further favoured him. Tharaka Nithi is basically divided into two: the agriculturally rich zones Maara and Chuka-Igambang’ombe constituencies and the drier Tharaka Constituency.
With the strong gubernatorial candidates, TNA’s Samuel Ragwa (the eventual winner) and APK’s Petkay Miriti coming from Maara and Chuka-Igambang’ombe respectively, natural justice suggested the senator ought to have come from the lower side. He easily defeated APK’s Kaburu Njeru.
But party intrigues bothered him. He was torn between The National Alliance and the United Republican Party which had both seconded him to the technical team during the negotiations that gave birth to the Jubilee coalition. He settled on TNA.
On Friday, Mr Muiru (URP) said of his senator. “As my constituent, I saw a sharp mind. The courage of even thinking of taking on other Tharaka-Nithi politicians for the big Senate seat was commendable for a person new to the rough and tumble of politics.”
But it is the whipping of Mr Khalwale that revealed the tougher side of Prof Kindiki. It also showed the determination that saw him land the plum position of Majority Leader.
From the corridors of Parliament to hotel lounges and secret rendezvous, the Senator did not miss a chance to meet and mobilise support from whoever he thought was important in his quest, even though the seat was not elective as such.
With fellow senators to MPs from the larger Meru region, he deftly crafted a lobbying machine that was hard to beat.
By the time the experienced and more- oiled senators such as Meru’s Kiraitu Murungi and Nyeri’s Mutahi Kagwe knew it, he had crossed the political rubicon.
His closeness to the President and Mr Ruto also helped. Prof Kindiki says that while he has always been a public-spirited man, he credits Mr Ruto for edging him into politics.
“It was while we were tabling the National Cohesion and Integration Bill which gave birth to the National Cohesion and Integration Commission that Mr Ruto walked to where we were sitting and told me: “Congratulations on your appointment, but I think you are in the wrong place. You will serve this country better if you join politics.” Then they parted ways.
Two years later, Mr Ruto would enrol him as one of his lawyers at the International Criminal Court where he faces crimes against humanity charges, a development that propelled Prof Kindiki to national fame because of the publicity the case attracted.
One of the most trusted men to whom the President assigns critical matters, he spoke of how he first met the future Head of State. “It was when I joined the legal team. At first, he did not strike me as an outstanding person. But as we later interacted, I have come to know him as a most honest, sincere person who means well for Kenya. He has a fairly concrete clarity of mind.”
He said he was proud of the pair — President Kenyatta and Mr Ruto — and is looking forward to a “significant recreation of some of our sectors like agriculture”.
Prof Kindiki and his wife Joyce, a university lecturer, have two children.
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