Wanjigi: Man who wielded influence, now at odds with government

Businessman Jimi Wanjigi with (left) his wife Irene Nzisa and members of his legal team during a press briefing after his home was raised by detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations at his home in Muthaiga on August 9, 2024. [Kanyiri Wahito, Standard]

Whenever Jimi Wanjigi speaks, his words often rattle the government. The businessman-turned-politician has a habit of faulting the State on a single subject until he can no longer be ignored.

His actions get him under the skin of State functionaries, who, as Wanjigi’s son, Maina Wanjigi, said on Thursday, respond with “raids.”

“It seems whenever we are a threat to them they decide to raid us,” a defiant Maina said Thursday afternoon, moments after a contingent of heavily armed paramilitary officers laid siege on their Muthaiga residence, Nairobi.

Indeed, his father has recently seemed like a threat. On and off social media, he has been a vocal cheerleader of the protesting youth who have brought President William Ruto’s administration to its knees, admitting on record to have aided some of them when needed.

“When it began, I gave money towards people who were being arrested and was public about it. I sent a little money for people who needed bail. Many people are funding - they are funding water, toothpaste and donating blood… If I had all the money I would give them money to go out there and do it (protest)... what’s wrong with it?” posed Wanjigi in an interview.

He dared the president to arrest him for his actions, which he said were constitutional. Wanjigi also predicted Ruto’s fall before the next general election.

“In the next few months he will not even have a budget,” added the presidential hopeful, who also called out police killings of peaceful protesters. “This is a man who is going. When you are killing kids, you are gone.”

Months earlier, Wanjigi had predicted a “revolution” in Kenya, which he said would be sparked by harsh economic realities and poor government policies.

Indeed, a revolt came when youth-led protesters forced the government into discarding the unpopular Finance Bill, 2024. 

Wanjigi has remained vocal about the economic policies that he believes are driving the nation into the abyss, pointing at Kenya’s unsustainable debt, which never shrinks despite heavy repayments, as the country’s worst problem.

Highlighting budgetary provisions that he believes have been violated in procuring debt, the businessman has termed most of Kenya’s debt “odious”, insisting that it should not be paid. He has been consistent on the subject since the 2022 general election. Wanjigi had sought to be president but was locked out for failing to present a degree certificate. 

As masked officers stormed his home, pointing laser sights at members of his family helplessly pleading, “Do not shoot us”, later claiming to have been assaulted, Wanjigi must have reflected on the reasons for the dramatic scenes. 

Detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) carrying bags of evidence they collected from Businessman Jimmy Wanjigi palatial home in Muthaiga on August 9, 2024. [Kanyiri Wahito, Standard]

Earlier, the acting Inspector General of Police, Gilbert Masengeli, claimed officers had seized tear gas canisters and phones from a vehicle allegedly belonging to Wanjigi, but not everyone bought the story.

“The year is 2024 and not 1985 Mr Gilbert Masengeli. Kenyans are not as foolish as you might think,” former Law Society of Kenya president Nelson Havi posted on X.

Wanjigi’s family members would also tell the press that they had seen officers planting “evidence”. The politician, who has since obtained court orders against his arrest, has been in a similar spot before. In January 2022, a contingent of elite police officers stormed his Kwacha House offices. At the time, Wanjigi blamed his woes on his presidential ambitions. He had challenged Raila Odinga for the Orange Democratic Movement ticket and blamed the former prime minister’s handshake with then President Uhuru Kenyatta for his troubles.

The pair would eventually split a month later when Wanjigi was violently ejected from an ODM meeting, later rekindling their ties after Raila’s loss in 2022.

Days before the repeat presidential election in October 2017, police officers raided his house, alleging the businessman had smuggled guns into the country. Wanjigi had at the time cut ties with Uhuru, whose alliance with Ruto Wanjigi said had been forged at his home in Muthaiga.

Wanjigi had chosen to back Raila’s presidential bid and had been vocal against the Standard Gauge Railway deal that he asserted was fraudulent.

The high court later ordered the State to return Wanjigi's firearms and compensate the damage of property. During the said raid, Raila and other opposition politicians spent the night at Wanjigi’s residence alongside the businessman’s late father, Maina Wanjigi.

Raila was among politicians who visited Wanjigi’s home on Friday alongside Narc Kenya leader Martha Karua and former Defence Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa.  

Karua engaged officers, demanding that they leave Wanjigi's premises, faulting them for destroying the politician's property.  

"This is not a police camp. This is someone's home. The family wishes to be free of intimidation... You are undesirable here," Karua told some officers outside the compound, with Wamalwa terming the raid a "politically-instigated witch-hunt". 

"No doubt the raid is a politically instigated witch-hunt that's meant to harass, intimidate and silence not just Hon Wanjigi but the Kenyan opposition. We must never allow our country Kenya to become a military or police state where Citizens live in fear, with the military deployed against them indefinitely and a rogue, hooded police force on the loose," said Wamalwa. 

Wanjigi was not always on the receiving end of the government's high-handedness. Before he became a household political name, Wanjigi mainly operated in the backrooms as a power and business broker. 

He was particularly influential in late former President Mwai Kibaki's administration and during Uhuru's first term in office. He has also attracted controversy and was once alleged to have intimidated Anglo-leasing whistleblower John Githongo, claims he has repeatedly denied.