Kindiki to finally get coveted prize after lengthy wait

Designate Deputy President Kithure Kindiki. [File, Standard]

Two years after he missed the prize by a whisker, Kithure Kindiki is set to assume the role of deputy president, following the High Court’s decision to lift conservatory orders preventing his assumption of office.

The Interior Cabinet Secretary becomes Kenya’s third deputy president and the nation’s thirteenth Number Two. He replaces Rigathi Gachagua who was impeached last month by the National Assembly, with the Senate upholding the charges.

President William Ruto on Thursday evening appointed Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi as acting Interior CS. And as his fist act in office, Mr Mudavadi declared Friday a national holiday.

Prof Kindiki takes over a powerful yet subdued role. A heartbeat away from the presidency, Kenya’s Number Twos also fly too close to the sun.

Powerful as they may be, the country’s first two deputy presidents (William Ruto and Gachagua) have found themselves at the mercy of their bosses.

Like Gachagua, Ruto was sidelined by President Uhuru Kenyatta and subjected to attacks by subordinates. This has rendered the deputy presidency a potentially nerve-racking position.

Gachagua’s swift ouster also dispels the notion that holders of the deputy presidency enjoy security of tenure, courtesy of constitutional safeguards that make it difficult to remove the office holder.

But Kindiki could be the most suitable candidate for the job. Largely amiable, the 52-year-old academician has been Ruto’s loyalist for more than a decade.

Kindiki’s journey with Ruto goes back to the International Criminal Court at the Hague, where the law professor defended the then Eldoret North MP in the crimes against humanity case. They would walk together into the 2013 election, in which Kindiki was elected Tharaka Nithi senator, a position he held until 2022. Between 2013 and 2017, he served as the Senate’s Leader of Majority.

In 2017, he ascended to the Deputy Speaker position and was later kicked out in a Uhuru’s purge targeting Ruto’s allies in the ruling Jubilee Party. Kindiki faulted 2020 the ouster as unconstitutional.

“It does not bother me at all that the die is cast against me. What bothers me is that the Constitution of our country is once again indecently assaulted in full glare,” he said then.

Rewarded for his loyalty

Two years later, Kindiki would wait to be rewarded for his loyalty with the running mate position. A team of experts recommended his nomination following opinion polls on the most suitable candidate.

Lawmakers from the Mt Kenya region also voted in support of Kindiki but Ruto overruled them and settled on Gachagua.

Shaken by the blow he had suffered, Kindiki declared a temporary retirement from politics.

But weeks later, Kindiki would be back in Ruto’s corner, serving as the then-DP’s chief agent during the 2022 presidential election.

Victory in the elections earned the lawyer the Interior Cabinet secretary position, which he has held for two years, with a one-month break when Ruto sacked his Cabinet.

He has had a chequered legacy at the Interior ministry. There were doubts that he had been placed in the right ministry, given his soft-spoken nature. He was often compared to his predecessor, the tough-talking and abrasive Fred Matiang’i.

His first assignment was combating banditry in northern Kenya. While there has been some semblance of normalcy in some bandit-prone areas, frequent flare ups in the Rift Valley region have been witnessed.

The main blot on his tenure as Interior CS is the State’s handling of anti-government protests. Last year, the government showed high intolerance to opposition protests over the high cost of living and electoral reforms.

If the police service had been brutal in 2023, they outdid themselves during the youth-led uprising in June and July this year. Police officers responded to flag-waving and placard-carrying youth with live bullets, tear gas, water cannons and batons.

The result was the senseless killings of about 60 people, with the government often denying that they were killed by the police. Ruto and Kindiki have defended the overbearing conduct by police officers, justifying their actions as aimed to forestall an “attempted coup”. But they are yet to present any evidence of a planned coup.

The brutality of police officers continues unabated. Since June, many Kenyans have been abducted by people suspected to be State operatives.

The government has denied the abductions, justifying others as arrests. They justify the deployment of heavily-armed masked men who use of unmarked vehicles to terrorise dissidents. Those released often speak of being detained in torture chambers.

Kindiki’s legacy also includes failing to tame wanton killings. His term began with the shocking Shakahola massacre that claimed more than 200 lives.

The discovery of decomposing bodies of young women at a garbage dump in Kware, an estate in Nairobi’s south-east, also raised questions about the country’s security and intelligence agencies.

In recent months, cases of femicide have been on the rise, with the police service saying 97 women had been killed in the last 90 days.

The former Interior CS will be hoping to shed off this legacy as he steps into a new role. He will be banking on some of his achievements, which include implementing some reforms in the security sector.

When he rose to the ministry, Kindiki pushed for reforms in the Immigration Department, overseeing the quick issuance of passports.

Kindiki, a lawyer for over 24 years, has taught at the Moi University and the University of Nairobi, where he was the head of the Department of Public Law and the Associate Dean of the law school aged 33.

He was promoted to associate professor of law at Kenyatta University. The son of a pastor undertook his undergraduate studies at Moi University and earned a Master of Laws degree, and a PhD in International Law from the University of Pretoria in South Africa.

Born on July 17, 1972, in Tharaka-Nithi County, Kindiki hails from a family with a strong academic background. He grew up in the county, attending the Lenana School for his secondary education and later Tharaka Boys High School.