Kazungu, Kiunjuri and Eugene's big gamble

Eugene Wamalwa

At the height of voter registration campaign in the run up to the last elections, President Uhuru Kenyatta made a stopover at Nanyuki town on January 21 last year.

It was then apparent that Devolution Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri was set to quit and make another go for the Laikipia gubernatorial seat. Then out of the blues, Kenyatta made an unexpected call.

He told cheering supporters that he wanted Mr Kiunjuri to drop his gubernatorial ambitions and help him to run the government, praising the CS as among the “fighters who protected the government.”

In December 2015 when it became apparent the Cabinet of technocrats needed some infusion of hot political blood to counter an opposition onslaught, he was the natural successor in Devolution Ministry to Anne Waiguru who resigned.

Kiunjuri now faces an uncertain political future when he would have easily won his place in the table of 47 governors.

After Friday’s developments, Water CS Eugene Wamalwa is also facing a similar fate. The former minister in Kibaki’s government was also prevailed upon by the president to drop his political ambitions in Trans Nzoia where he had appeared keen to take a ruling party ticket to oust Governor Patrick Khaemba.

Dan Kazungu, the Mining Minister was plucked from legislative politics resigning his seat as the Malindi MP (ODM) to take up a Cabinet position after the exit of Kazungu Kambi in November 2015.

A largely obscure CS, he has faced a backlash of having been unable to help Jubilee make inroads in his Kilifi County where the opposition comfortably recaptured his seat after his resignation. But after wooing by Jubilee he may now find himself an abandoned sheep after Friday’s developments.