When former Devolution Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru announced that she would vie for the Nairobi governor’s seat in February last year, social media went ablaze.
Would she survive the rumble and tumble of city politics yet she had quit Cabinet for lighter duties?
But a few weeks later, she changed her mind and eyed the Kirinyaga governor’s seat.
Even then, Kirinyaga politicians and residents were unmoved by her declaration as she had never campaigned in the region let alone expressed interest for the seat.
The closest she came to holding public events was her homecoming which was attended by President Uhuru Kenyatta.
NAME RECOGNITION
But political tongues started wagging when Ms Waiguru teamed up with Ms Wangui Ngirichi, an aggressive woman Representative aspirant known for flamboyant campaigns in choppers and well-branded vehicles and who was on Tuesday poised to win the Jubilee nominations race.
Ms Waiguru was from Gichugu and had the name recognition and the gravitas. Mrs Ngirichi, a Mwea resident but married in Kirinyaga Central, brought the resources and political network.
They then incorporated current Jubilee chairman John Mithamo ‘Wasusanna’, a tea director used to the rough Ndia politics. It is a tag-team that has taken Kirinyaga by storm.
“I will transform the lives of Kirinyaga people and win fair and square in the elections. When I put my mind in something, I give it my all. My 100 per cent,” she told Nation
in an exclusive interview last year.
Indeed Ms Waiguru’s life has been one of grit, setting the pace and a controversial past that is both an asset and a liability.
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