This archive report was first published on 14 December 2019.
Published on December 14, 2019, Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru has spoken candidly about her complicated past with opposition leader Raila Odinga and Deputy President William Ruto.
Waiguru, who was accused of being part of a scheme to embezzle funds from the National Youth Service in 2015, said the scandal stained her career as a technocrat at the Devolution ministry, where she was the Cabinet Secretary.
Despite the evidence presented in court against her, Waiguru was cleared of any malpractice by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission in 2016.
Waiguru has all along proclaimed her innocence in the matter, and at one point sued Odinga for defamation after he linked her to the scandal. She has since withdrawn the case.
On her newfound rapport with Odinga, who called for her sacking as Minister when hairdresser Josephine Kabura accused the governor and her close associates of hatching elaborate schemes to cover up the loss of money at the NYS, Waiguru explained that it was in the spirit of the 'Handshake', referring to the political truce between Odinga and President Uhuru Kenyatta.
'We agreed to settle our differences outside the court in the spirit of the Handshake, and for the cohesion and reconciliation of the country,' she said.
As part of the truce with the former Prime Minister, Waiguru campaigned for ODM candidate Imran Okoth during the recent Kibra by-election, and has now become a regular visitor to Odinga's Capitol Hill office in Nairobi.
Waiguru defended her association with Odinga, saying the handshake and the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) guaranteed Mt Kenya region, from where she hails, a stake in the country's leadership beyond 2022.
She argued that the BBI report provided the best option for the region regarding the next political dispensation as it provides for the creation of the post of the Prime Minister and two deputies, in addition to the President and his or her Deputy.
Of the five top positions, Waiguru argued, one must be from the region, possibly a woman, given its numbers.
