DP Kindiki takes throne fleetingly, before things come tumbling down

Deputy President Kithure Kindiki during the coronation at Kiringiti Stadium on September 19, 2026.[DPPS]

I have no idea what Deputy Prezzo Kithure Kindiki aka Soprano’s mission was doing in Kirigiti Stadium, the name means cricket, by the way, from the sport that the Brits introduced there, when it was jolly good for them, but that wasn’t the case for the good prof.

I heard on the grapevine that he was being installed as the “regional kingpin,” whatever that means, adjudicating over the Mt Kenya aka “Murima” communities. Ideally, this institution of “kingpinship” is supposed to provide guidance on how a region will respond to evolving social issues.

History teaches us that the mountain folks, just as the rugged terrain around them, are fiercely independent-minded so such impositions are likely to be taken very unkindly. In any case, they are also aware that such processes as generational transfer of power, “ituika” is a solemn ritual conducted by bonafide elders from the community, not cultural brokers from River Road.

In fact, it is abominable for one to stake a claim in community leadership while another leader is still at the helm. The leadership mantle, muthiigi, is passed on from one leader to another. There was no explanation who was bequeathing the good prof the baton, and from whom.

Those who saw the Kirigiti fiasco as a cultural fraud were vindicated instantly; as Soprano took his seat, the traditional headgear tumbled to the ground. His face fell, perhaps because he, too, understood the monstrosity of the act. But what was striking was why he’d bother with all that vipindi-re. The constituency that will install this country’s leadership are young people who don’t understand this obsession with ethnicity because they belong to none.