Jimi Wanjigi: UhuRuto plotting 2027 politics to escape debt reckoning

Safina party leader Jimmy Wanjigi. [File, Standard]

Safina presidential candidate Jimmy Wanjigi has accused former President Uhuru Kenyatta and his successor, William Ruto, of jointly manipulating Kenya’s 2027 political landscape to shield themselves from accountability over the country’s Sh13.3 trillion debt burden.

Wanjigi, who has positioned himself as a tax justice defender and economic liberation campaigner, said the country’s debt crisis was a product of decisions made by Uhuru and Ruto when they served as President and Deputy President, respectively, and warned that Kenyans risk being trapped in another political contest between the two leaders and their allies.

He said the political manoeuvres surrounding the Opposition were reminiscent of the 2022 General Election, when Uhuru backed the late Raila Odinga’s Azimio la Umoja coalition against Ruto, whom he accused of mobilising the “hustler” movement.

According to Wanjigi, the 2022 arrangement enabled Uhuru to retain influence over the Opposition even as he appeared to be fighting Ruto.

“When Uhuru supported Raila in 2022, he was owning Raila. He was owning the Opposition,” Wanjigi said.

He argued that the arrangement would have protected Uhuru from a potential Raila Presidency because, in his view, the former President would have retained influence over the political establishment he had helped create.

Wanjigi now claims a similar strategy is unfolding ahead of the 2027 elections, with Uhuru allegedly retaining influence within Opposition formations while Ruto remains at the centre of the governing political establishment.

“Today, we are being ushered into a contest between Uhuru and Ruto again. We are not being freed of them. We have been at it since 2013, 2017, 2022, and come now 2027, we are dealing with the same two individuals organising our politics. For whose benefit? It is not for ours. It is for themselves,” he said.

Wanjigi pointed to Uhuru’s continued position as chairman of Azimio, while former Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka serves as its party leader, as evidence that the former President continues to wield influence over the Opposition.

He also cited Jubilee’s continued association with Azimio and the emergence of alternative Opposition formations involving Kalonzo and People's Liberation Party leader Martha Karua, who are the co-conveners of the United Alternative Government (UAG).

“The chairman of Azimio is Uhuru. The party leader is now Kalonzo.  Uhuru’s hand is still there in the Opposition,” he said.

Wanjigi said the political contest should instead be judged against what he described as the more fundamental issue facing Kenya: the country’s mounting public debt.

He accused the two leaders of presiding over what he termed a massive financial “heist” beginning around 2013-2014, claiming that borrowing undertaken during their administrations had left taxpayers carrying an unsustainable burden.

“This debt crisis problem in Kenya was committed by both Uhuru and Ruto. They own this problem that we have Today of Sh13.3 trillion. They are the owners of it,” he said.

Wanjigi claimed that Kenya had already paid an amount equivalent to the current debt stock through taxation, yet the debt continued to rise.

“There is something the two of them did from 2013-2014 to date. It is called a heist. They took money beyond your imagination. That is unconstitutional. It was never passed by Parliament. And Today they are busy covering up the same nonsense,” he said.

He put what he described as the disputed borrowing and alleged financial losses at about Sh7 trillion, while acknowledging that his figure was based on his own forensic audit.

“Our numbers are showing Sh7 trillion, which is about $50 billion. It is world-class. They are working together to cover up this heist even in the 2027 game plan,” he said.

Wanjigi further claimed that the apparent political hostility between Ruto and Uhuru masks what he sees as a common interest in protecting their respective records.

“Ruto and Uhuru are covering each other. Since they give us the appearance that they don’t like each other, and probably they don’t, they have one thing in common: the major heist of debt. They are both in it,” he said.

According to Wanjigi, the debt burden will continue haunting Kenyans for decades unless the political system is fundamentally changed.

“They have given us a problem that is not going away. It is here with us until 2040 minimum. They have made sure that whatever political arrangement comes in, they are both being safeguarded. Not the people of Kenya. It is themselves,” he said.

Wanjigi said the 2024 Gen Z-led protests and growing public scrutiny of taxation had fundamentally changed the political consciousness of Kenyans, making it harder for established political formations to dictate the terms of the 2027 election.

“Kenyans have evolved. Kenyans now are more and more aware of these machinations. Kenyans are seeing them for what they are,” he said.

He said the public was increasingly asking what it was getting in return for the taxes collected by the government.

“They are asking, for all the money that we give our government, that they take from us in tax, what is our return? We are hearing trillions are being collected in tax, but we are never seeing this return,” he said.

Wanjigi cited the cost of education, healthcare and deteriorating infrastructure as evidence of what he described as the disconnect between taxation and public services.

He urged Kenyans to use the 2027 election to break away from what he described as personality-driven and ethnic politics and instead overhaul the political system.

“This is a turning point in this election. We have a great opportunity to cut off these people who are about themselves, to create a new order for Kenyans that is beyond individuals, beyond tribes, where we are united for ourselves as Kenyans,” he said.

Wanjigi also rejected the emerging Opposition alliances, arguing that Kenya has continued to mistake tribal arithmetic for political coalitions.

“What we have in Kenya is not genuine coalitions but tribal coalitions,” he said.

He challenged political parties to move beyond ethnic mobilisation and form alliances around ideology, policy and a shared national agenda.

“Let us now, after 63 years, create a union, a coalition of ideas, of ideology, of agenda. Let us have a meeting of minds on our total lives, not some of our lives,” he said.

Wanjigi said Kenya should emulate political systems where parties organise around competing philosophies rather than ethnic constituencies.

“We should have graduated politics to a coalition of ideology. If you see coalitions in Europe and Western democracies, it is not about tribes. It is ideas. Who is a socialist? Who is a communist? Who is a capitalist? Those ideas. Ideology,” he said.

As part of his proposed alternative, Wanjigi said he would seek to build a coalition around what he calls a Debt Liberation covenant under which his political allies would commit themselves to investigating Kenya’s debt and refusing to honour loans that he claims were contracted outside constitutional procedures.

He said his administration would scrutinise loans against the constitutional requirements on public finance, particularly Articles 206 and 220 of the Constitution.

“Any debt that we find in the books that did not pass through Article 220 in other words, it was never passed by the budget of Kenya as prescribed in the Constitution did not go towards development, did not enter our Consolidated Fund as per Article 206 of the Constitution of Kenya, that is illegal debt,” he said.