Tribute to three departed heroes who helped in shaping Kenya's history

Maina Wanjigi. [Courtesy]

In the midst of the current youth revolution, three notable public-spirited middle-level giants, each unique, departed the earth.

They were Maina Wanjigi, a politician; Joe Wanjui and Michael Waweru or ‘MG, top technicians whose reputation hinged on their ability to deliver well above their peers.

Maina and Joe were the youth who travelled to the United States for education in the late 1950s and returned with college degrees in the early 1960s to take up assignments in the new Kenya. MG was a product of the newly created University of Nairobi in the early 1970s.

Maina's death attracted more attention than the other two, partly because he was a politician and a former minister, but also because he has a flamboyant son, Jimmy Wanjigi, who makes political waves in his own right.

Although the funeral arrangements appeared more like a ‘Jimmy’ rather than a ‘Maina’ affair, it was the 92-year-old Maina who people in Kamkunji remembered.

The first Director of Settlement at independence, he oversaw settlement schemes, helped establish ICDC, and then joined politics in 1969 and won the Kamkunji seat. Kenyatta appointed him assistant minister for Agriculture in 1970 but he lost his seat in 1979. He regained it in 1983 and was appointed minister in various ministries, culminating in Agriculture.

Maina's problems came later with post-Jomo governments. In 1990 the Nairobi City Commission ordered the destruction of the slum dwellings at Muoroto in his constituency. He complained and compared the destruction to the 1954 anti-Mau Mau Operation Anvil; he was accused of ‘tribalism’ and dismissed from the cabinet.

He was thereafter not very successful in opposition politics and remained in the background giving advice.

In 2017 when the government raided the Jimmy Wanjigi residence, his son, in Muthaiga, he commended Jimmy’s wife by telling young men to get married and have good wives. Many high-fliers attended the funeral to honour Maina because of Jimmy.

Like Maina, Wanjui was a returnee from the US, having attained a Columbia University graduate degree. He was part of the youth Julius Gikonyo Kiano reportedly helped to go to the US in the late 1950s. He used to live near Kariokor Market before relocating to more appropriate areas befitting his growing stature, influence as an investor, and interaction with the political elite.

Like Maina, he was involved in setting up the ICDC which assisted a lot of Kenyans to become economic and political movers and shakers.

He became a confidant of Mwai Kibaki as part of an influential Council of Elders and Muthaiga Club. Whether as Minister for Commerce and Industry, Finance, or Vice President or eventually the third President, Joe was always near Kibaki.

He benefited from Kibaki’s decision to appoint many Chancellors to public universities; he became Chancellor of the University of Nairobi. He was in the critical Council of Elders in Kibaki’s 2007 re-election campaign and was bullish on how well the economy was doing. He differed with political strategists on the need for campaign money and was very sure that Kibaki would win because the economy was vibrant. Kibaki won narrowly.

Another Kibaki appointee was ‘MG’, the soft-spoken tax collector who was responsible for the bullish economy that Wanjui boasted about. He computerised the entire system in such ways that he could monitor the inflow of various taxes from his office. Aware of the behaviour of political operators, he was always ready to deflate their moves and insinuations.

‘Lipa kodi’ (pay tax) was his answer to those seeking short cuts, and he had Kibaki’s full support. Somehow making tax compliance easy, tax collection rose up.

His tax-collection efficiency reportedly attracted the Chinese who sought to know what his secret was. He was part of Kibaki’s strategy team, starting around 2004, which helped to deliver Kibaki’s 2007 re-election victory. He will be missed.