Why Jubilee, Nasa were dying for a piece of ‘James Wanjigi Bond’

The recent salacious public altercations starring Deputy President William Ruto and former Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka threatens to unmask the unknown heirs of the late Prof George Saitoti’s 2013 aborted multi-billion shilling campaign war chest.

Both Ruto and Kalonzo have revealed enough details that they are closely associated with Wanjigi, even as they bickered over his role in bankrolling Nasa campaigns.

Ruto and Kalonzo, in their verbal brawls, have also thrown broad hints on the possible final destination of Prof Saitoti’s rarely discussed billions of shillings he had assembled in readiness for the 2013 presidential campaign.

The heated exchanges have also given rare glimpses of possible reasons behind a hitherto unexplainable tight hold the Deputy President has enjoyed in an administration in which he gets virtually anything he fancies, to the chagrin of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s supporters and close aides.

But lost in the sensational high-level washing of dirty linen on prime time live TV, is the fact that Wanjigi was a key ally of the late Prof Saitoti, and his name featured prominently in 2012 among key players inside the Saitoti presidential bid before he died in an air crash in Ngong on the outskirts of Nairobi.

Although Wanjigi seeks no public office, that the senior-most politicians in Kenya today are bickering in public over whom he loved more than the other, seems to vindicate Prof Saitoti’s choice of ‘James Bond,’ as Wanjigi is fondly known by close associates, as having merit, given the latter’s talent and ability to cultivate friends in high office.

At the time of his death, Prof Saitoti was heading the twin central dockets of Internal Security and (holding brief for) Foreign Affairs, hence, was the most powerful Cabinet minister in President Mwai Kibaki’s government.

He had the provincial administration and the police firmly under his belt and had thus aligned the security arms of the State to play a critical role in his presidential campaign.

Prof Saitoti was thus perceived to be a possible front-runner in the Kibaki succession. He had set up a presidential campaign secretariat in Westlands, headed by longtime ally and strategist, Prof Peter Kagwanja.

So meticulously aligned was Prof Saitoti’s State-political war machine template, which upon his on the morning of June 9, 2012, his entire machinery, from State and political operatives, to his top-notch legal advisers, seamlessly shifted their labour, loyalty and assets to candidate Uhuru Kenyatta, helping the incumbent to win the March 4, 2013 election.

The Wanjigi–Saitoti connection to the 2013 Jubilee victory is seen in the sequence of events that followed the official launch of The National Alliance (TNA) by Uhuru on May 10, 2012, and in which William Ruto, was not a factor, and did not attend.

Water Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa was the star of the day as keynote speaker, and presumed TNA presidential running mate.

The launch of the TNA by Uhuru also marked a significant step in the then fluid dynamics between senior Kibaki men coalescing around Prof Saitoti and then VP, Kalonzo Musyoka, both of whom were joined at the hip in PNU party and Kibaki’s Cabinet, in which Uhuru still retained a foothold as Deputy Prime Minister, under the grand coalition arrangement - which made him first among equals among Kibaki princes.

It is in these dicey circumstances that Prof Saitoti’s death occurred the following month, on June 10, about 20 days after the launch of TNA, and, as they say, all bets were off.

Prof Saitoti’s exit freed Uhuru from previous political deals between him, Saitoti and Kalonzo. He was now free to court other partners further afield.

Apparently, Wanjigi initially threw his lot with the United Republican Party at the beginning of the jostling to succeed Kibaki, a new party that mounted a blitzkrieg of a campaign across the land, not only mopping up MP, Senator and Governor slots, but also raising its profile and negotiations muscle at the TNA-URP Jubilee coalition power sharing table.

In the current Jubilee coalition, Ruto is credited with securing a better deal for himself than Raila Odinga did in 2008 as Prime Minister with Kibaki.

In an apparent pay back for his labour in supporting Jubilee election efforts, Uhuru’s former personal assistant turned Kenya’s Solicitor General and chief custodian of international treaties, Njee Muturi, would fast-track the settlement of Sh4 billion Anglo Leasing payments, that had remained frozen under the Kibaki administration, and which caught many by surprise.

President Kenyatta defended the payments as necessary and inevitable, never mind the public had not received value for the payments.

Wanjigi is said to have since switched sides to support the National Super Alliance (Nasa) side, much to the chagrin of Jubilee.