Call it robbery with violence or robbery with cunning, but it was a robbery that made former Transition Authority (TA) chairman Kinuthia Wamwangi to permanently shelve his earlier political ambitions.
The year was 1997. Some elections were happening under the Kanu party and Mr Wamwangi, who was interested in becoming the Juja MP, was in one area where polling was taking place. Then some youths came for him.
They carried him high in the air, shouting: “Wamwangi juu!”
As he would shortly realise, this was a ploy to wipe his pockets clean. As they lifted him in such a way that his hands were suspended high in the air, he could feel some hands ransacking his pockets.
“Wananiibia (They are robbing me)!” he yelled.
Former Transition Authority chairman Kinuthia Wamwangi with his wife Teresia Wanjeri at their Thika home on April 20, 2022.
But his shouts were drowned in the “Wamwangi juu” chants. By the time they were done with him, he had lost Sh50,000; which was no small amount in 1997, when the Daily Nation cost Sh25.
When he later told his wife about it, she suffered her first ever asthmatic attack that sprung up out of the blue.
She had travelled to Uganda because she so loathed the idea of her husband contesting seeking an elective position that she saw it fit to join a church trip to the neighbouring country.
“I feared she would die, so I decided to run away from it (politics),” says Mr Wamwangi.
“I decided that if I participate in politics, the more likely outcome is that it’s going to ruin my family because my wife didn’t like it and she couldn’t bear it. So, I decided to withdraw,” he adds.
Governorship running mate
We are discussing political ambitions in Mr Wamwangi’s Thika home on a quiet Wednesday afternoon in the outskirts of Thika. Minutes before our interview, someone – he doesn’t disclose who – had called him to ask whether he would like to be a governorship running mate in the August General Election.
The 71-year-old says he won’t take up the offer; that he can be a county minister but not a deputy governor.
“It’s because one is political; the other one is bureaucratic. So, I can do very well as a minister because it is not political. But I cannot do well as a governor because it is political,” he says.
During the chat, Mr Wamwangi discusses many things, which is a long story because he has been many things — a town clerk, a personnel administrative manager at NSSF, a lecturer in Kenya and Zimbabwe, a member of various boards, a holder of two master’s degrees taken at the same time in the UK, a regional non-governmental organisation head, a governance consultant, the TA boss, among others.
On his personal side, Mr Wamwangi talks about the brief relationship he had with his late father who was detained by colonialists during the State of Emergency; how his wedding in 1980 caused “the first ever” traffic jam in Thika; how he made Thika his home and not his native Nakuru; how luck favoured him in his education journey; among others.
Anyone who has interviewed Mr Wamwangi will know that he often has a “don’t forget” point whenever he talks to a journalist. This time, he wants us to take note of a book he has written which he plans to launch during the AfriCities Summit to be held on May 17-21.
Its title is: The Decentralization Dialogue in Africa: A Precursor to Devolution in Kenya. He says he wrote it over a 10-year period. In it, he shares insights from his experiences in Kenya and other countries regarding their approach to local governments.
The book draws from his experiences while working with the defunct municipal councils of Nakuru, Thika, Nyeri and Mombasa early in his career capped with his tenure at the TA between 2012 and 2016.
He also draws his experiences from 2003 and 2008 when he was the senior programme officer with the Municipal Development Partnership for Eastern and Southern Africa — a World Bank-supported outfit based in Harare.
“My book talks about those approaches in promoting decentralisation. And it discusses different Afri-cities, it discusses different African ministers’ conferences, it discusses the theory and practice of decentralisation,” he says.
He is currently seeking a sponsor to facilitate the launch.
Born in Nakuru County in June 1950, Mr Wamwangi life was greatly affected by the political happenings of his childhood.
“In 1953, when I was hardly three years old, my father was taken to a detention camp during the State of Emergency. By the time he came out in 1956, I really didn’t know him. I was re-introduced to him. And he took me to school in 1957. And in 1959, he died. So, I only knew my father for about three years,” he says.
The death of his father left his mother vulnerable. She was soon evicted from a saw mill firm where the husband used to work. Fending for Mr Wamwangi, the first born, and three other children was a burden for her.
Luckily for Mr Wamwangi, his father has been an ardent Catholic, having been a pioneering catechist in Marishoni. This made a local priest, Fr Bernard Cunningham, come to the aid of his family when he died. Mr Wamwangi says he first wore trousers and shoes when in Standard Seven, thanks to a priest who was importing second-hand clothes.
Former Transition Authority chairman Kinuthia Wamwangi donning Kikuyu elder regalia in April 2022.
Fr Cunningham sponsored Wamwangi’s education in primary school and for secondary school, he went to the Mother of Apostles Seminary.
Another priest, Fr Joseph Murray, paid for his fees at the seminary. He later went to Strathmore for secondary school before joining the University of Nairobi (UoN) where he studied law, with the government “boom” and being hired on a vocational basis helping him meet his expenses.
“Since I was born, I don’t know what school fees looks like. I was a charity case from the beginning to the end,” he says.
“I ask myself even when I am driving this Mercedes-Benz here, or this BMW (referring to his cars): if nobody had noticed me, you can be sure I could have been among the Kiandutu boys; those slum boys,” he adds.
First job
He was barely out of UoN when the first job in the municipal set up arose. Because he aspired to be a company secretary one day, studying industrial law to be competent in that respect, he took up a job in Nakuru as the county clerk in the place of the holder had been sacked.
But the former clerk was reinstated and he subsequently headed to Thika where he became a municipal advocate. By then, he was yet to be admitted to the bar.
When he became a full-fledged advocate, he applied for a vacancy of assistant town clerk in Mombasa and was given the job. Two years later, officials from Thika came for him.
“They sent someone who told me: ‘We have sacked the town clerk and we want you to apply for that job.’ So, I came here, applied, and eventually I was hired as town clerk,” he says, adding that one had to be a lawyer to be a town clerk.
Months later, he held his wedding.
“During my generation, you can say I married late because I married at the age of 30. And when I married, I’d already held two very critical positions. One was the job of assistant town clerk in Mombasa Municipal Council, which I was given at the age of 26. The other one was town clerk of Thika, at the age of 29. And I didn’t have a wife. On reflection, I find that career-wise, I bloomed very early,” says Mr Wamwangi.
“So, by the time I came to marry, it was like a State wedding. You know, it’s the town clerk marrying. I was given all the council vehicles to carry my parents from Nakuru and I remember in Thika Municipality, when we went to get the girl, the vehicles were lined up for almost more than one kilometre,” he adds, noting that the entourage included six Mercedes-Benz cars for the bridal team.
“And because this procession was about two kilometres long, it caused a traffic jam for the first time in Thika. There was a traffic jam for the first time in 1980. That’s the thing I remember most about the wedding,” he says.
The bride, Teresia Wanjeri, was from a family friend of Mr Wamwangi’s late father. They are both from strong Catholic backgrounds and Mrs Wamwangi said it was a good thing that they were in the same faith.
“We were really honoured by the people of this town and we would have let them down if it had gone otherwise,” says Mr Wamwangi.
And why did he settle in Thika?
“This is where I was offered the first opportunity,” he says.
They have four children born between 1983 and 1989. They are currently based in Australia.
His wife says: “I am happy with the relationship with my husband because he takes care of the family. He disciplines the children. I think that’s what has made them what they are.”
After his stint in Thika, he worked at the National Social Security Fund then later at Carnaudmetalbox. By this time, he had ventured into human resource management.
It was later in his career, between 1992 and 1997, which he toyed with the idea of becoming an elected leader.
“This was during the hard-core Kanu era. For you to be an MP, you had first of all to be elected as a Kanu leader in the location. I tried but I couldn’t even go through at the location,” says Mr Wamwangi with a chuckle.
After he lost Sh50,000 to youths, he turned his back on politics and decided to travel abroad “to remove myself from that scenario where there is a temptation to continue with politics”.
It was during his stay in the United Kingdom that he got a master’s in employment law and employment relations from the University of Leicester and a master’s in human resource from the University of Manchester almost consecutively.
“Some people said I could not manage it,” says Mr Wamwangi.
While in the UK, he came across some lecturers engaged in research and when they learnt he had been a town clerk before, they engaged him in their projects.
“When my programme director knew that I was formerly a town clerk, he started involving me a lot in research,” says Mr Wamwangi. “The university funded my travel to Kenya. You can see, I am a miracle baby.”
Today, Mr Wamwangi wears many hats. He is a council member of the Maasai Mara University where he chairs the Finance, Strategic and Resource Mobilisation Committee.
He is also the chairman of the board of fellows of the Kenya Institute of Management, which also makes him the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Management University of Africa.
He is also the Country Director of Embrace International Limited as well as the chairman of Embrace Values and Standards Kenya Limited.
Mr Wamwangi is also the chairman of the Embu County Pending Bills Committee; a member of the devolution committee of the Kenya Private Sector Alliance; the chairman of the Institute of Human Resource Management Act Amendment Taskforce, among others.
Church elder
Because he is a senior citizen, he is also a church elder within the ranks of the Catholic Men Association, an ambassador of older persons in Kenya and an active player in the activities of Kikuyu elders.
Isn’t this too much for a 71-year-old? He says no; that he hates being idle: “The time the mind sleeps is the time the body sleeps.”
“Imagine a person who wakes up in the morning, takes a bath, reads a newspaper twice over, then walks around the estate without any proper purpose. Then in the evening he takes his medicine, watches the TV, then he repeats that routine tomorrow and the day after. He will age within five years. He will become useless,” reasons Mr Wamwangi.
As we have the interview, he says, there are many “big” reports he needs to review.
Though he doesn’t practise as a lawyer, he says his legal knowledge helps him a great deal.
“I use law as my armour,” he says. “Law goes very well with governance, because the laws are the ones we practise in governance.”
Does he get the appointments because of networks or how does he do it? He says he applies for some jobs, like the Maasai Mara University and the TA roles, but also admits he is good at networking.
He advises anyone who seeks recognition for his work to take up whatever tasks are available, even for free.
“I do a lot of volunteerism. I have worked in very many organisations where I am not paid,” he says, noting that he has led boards of “more than 20” schools since 1979.
“I work extraordinarily hard, whether I’m being paid or not,” he says.
In 2013, Mr Wamwangi was made an Elder of the Order of the Burning Spear (EBS) and was later given the status of njamba (hero) among the Kikuyu elders.
“I was crowned to recognise my contribution in society, and particularly in devolution,” he says. “I am in the elders’ council as a legal and constitutional advisor .”
Thanks to his affiliation with the elders, Mr Wamwangi was recently among a number of elders who met President Uhuru Kenyatta at State House. So, what is his relationship with Mr Kenyatta?
“He knows me in person, but just like he knows many Kenyans, we don’t have a working relationship. But we have a good relationship because I’m still very loyal to him,” says Mr Wamwangi.
The afternoon is wearing away as we wind up our interview and as we leave, Mr Wamwangi is preparing for a trip to Narok for one of his many official engagements. BY DAILY NATION