Parliamentary Energy Committee Chairman and Kigumo MP Jamleck Irungu Kamau is working flat out to pour embattled Murang’a Governor Mwangi wa Iria’s milk and eject him out of the governor’s mansion in Murang’a County come August.
Kamau joins the few MPs displaying unusual bravado in taking on incumbent governors, unlike well-heeled senators gunning for gubernatorial seats with regional political heft and financial muscle.
Jamleck Kamau’s candidature and rising influence is however not surprising. From co-trustee of the Jubilee Alliance Party – now the Jubilee Party — to chairing the powerful energy committee in the National Assembly, his is a portrait of a politician riding the inner lane of the top Jubilee leadership because of his unwavering loyalty to President Uhuru Kenyatta after the untimely exit of former Party of National Unity (PNU) Chief Whip and Juja MP, the late George Thuo.
The 50-year-old made his bones as part of a small group of youthful MPs who stood by a shadowy group of select elderly, wealthy and influential individuals like John Michuki, then Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and VP Kalonzo Musyoka during the acrimonious constitutional review process of 2010. The group, lampooned as ‘watermelons’ — wearing green colours by day out of cynical courtesy to retired President Mwai Kibaki, but scheming to scuttle the proposed new constitution by night — was concerned about a weakened presidency and the land question.
After President Kibaki publicly endorsed the new constitution draft, Jamleck Kamau, at the behest of the ‘Watermelon Axis,’ moved a motion seeking Parliament’s approval of a constitutional amendment to postpone the August 4, 2010, referendum date.
This move deeply divided the entire Mt Kenya political and religious leadership to the point of name-calling in public meetings, with those for the constitution rallying behind President Kibaki, while those in support of Uhuru and Michuki sat on the fence.
Jamleck would later withdraw the motion and just hours before the first reading, he declared that: “The mover does not wish to proceed”. But it was an open secret that there was great back room pressure to avoid a public showdown involving Mt Kenya political leadership on one side and President Kibaki on the other.
It is significant that Jamleck only backed down after Michuki converted to the ‘Yes’ camp, late into the referendum campaigns calendar in July of 2010 at a rally presided over by President Kibaki in Murang’a. Grapevine had it that State House had mobilised high-fliers in the corporate and parastatal world and the civil service from Murang’a to publicly denounce the former Kangema MP had he not capitulated. This schism had the effect of sowing mistrust and suspicions that some key personalities from the region did not mind President Kibaki flopping a second time at the 2010 referendum, just like it happened in 2005.
This schism resulted in the isolation of Uhuru, the Deputy Prime Minister at the time, leaving few loyal allies in the PNU fraternity, among them Jamleck, Lewis Nguyai (former Kikuyu MP) and then Ndaragwa MP and PNU Chief Whip, Jeremiah Kioni, Githunguri MP Njoroge Baiya, Kareke Mbiuki, Beth Mugo and Ferdinard Waititu. Around this time, there emerged a youthful group of political leaders in Murung’a led by then Gatanga MP, Peter Kenneth, spinning a yarn that time had come for Murang’a to provide a presidential candidate after Kibaki retired, since Kiambu had ‘had its turn during the 15 years Jomo Kenyatta was president. Jamleck steered clear of this group - obviously taking a cue from the late Michuki who made no secret as to who Kibaki’s successor should be by aggressively drawing the line on the sand and declaring Uhuru Kenyatta the prince in waiting.
“Anyone else who brings contrary views declares himself an enemy to be fought politically,” Michuki declared. The rest is history.
After being compelled to resign from the Cabinet upon being named ICC criminal suspect, Uhuru forwarded Jamleck’s name to take his place, upon which he was appointed Nairobi Metropolitan Development Minister in early 2012.
Although seven months is still a long time to the General Election, it seems the company the Kigumo MP has kept, and the moves he has made in the past might converge to give him a leg up to the mountain top.
