Waiguru muddies the waters for Jubilee in race for Nairobi’s top seat
Jubilee Party will grapple with a crowded field during its nominations for the Nairobi governorship in the next elections if former Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru heeds a call from a section of women to contest the seat.
Ms Waiguru, who was in charge of a powerful docket in the Jubilee administration, has apparently timed her actions, which culminated in the declaration by more than 200 women at Ufungamano House in Nairobi on Wednesday that she should seek to become the capital city’s governor.
First, she wrote a long opinion article in the Saturday Nation. The next day, she was interviewed for long on Citizen TV during prime time.
POLITICAL CAREER
On Wednesday, Ms Waiguru made her latest foray into the public scene, and with it came what appears to be the beginning of her political career.
Ms Njeri Thorne, one of Ms Waiguru’s advisers, told the Nation that the former CS is considering her options and going for the Nairobi governor seat is one of them.
Her resurgence, she said, would also help show that she would not accept to go away from the public in the way other women have been forced to abandon high office.
GLASS CEILING
“In Kenya, as a woman, it’s not a glass ceiling that you have to punch through. You have to bulldoze yourself through the male hegemony and patriarchy that is part and parcel of our society. If Anne Waiguru had not stood up, she would have been sending wrong signals to our young girls,” said Ms Thorne.
“You cannot allow for that to happen, not when we have daughters. That is why it is crucial that she comes back,” she added.
If she chooses to enter the race for Nairobi, Ms Waiguru will be joining a growing list of aspirants.
Among the earliest politicians to state their ambitions was Dagoretti South MP Dennis Waweru. Another is Nairobi Senator Mike Sonko.
