Kenyan businessman Jimi Wanjigi is once again trying to force himself into political relevance, but his latest move exposes nothing more than desperation.
By unveiling Chris Wandera as the Safina Party candidate for the Kariobangi North MCA by-election, Wanjigi is clearly clutching at straws. Wandera is a 30-year-old political novice with no track record, no influence, and no serious following.
The bigger problem is that this is the same Wandera who lost badly during the ODM primaries, failing to even reach 500 votes. The obvious question now is, if he could not even secure 500 votes in a major party’s nomination, how on earth does Wanjigi expect him to secure 5,000 votes in a competitive ward election?
The math doesn’t add up, and the people can already see through it.
Wanjigi has tried to present Wandera as the face of youth and fresh energy, but the reality is clear he is recycling losers and begging them to come pick certificates under Safina.
This is not leadership, it is a display of political bankruptcy. Safina itself has been irrelevant for years, and Wanjigi’s takeover is nothing but a personal vehicle for his ambitions, not a serious party with a plan.
His candidate is already a proven loser, and by pushing him into the race, Wanjigi is exposing himself as a leader with no strategy, no ground, and no capacity to win.
In a place like Kariobangi North, where residents struggle with poor roads, lack of water, and unemployment, people want leaders who can deliver, not pawns of a scandal-ridden billionaire trying to cleanse his image.
The irony is that Wanjigi himself has been part of Kenya’s dirty politics for decades, making fortunes from shady government deals, yet he now positions himself as a reformer.
His history is littered with controversies, from Anglo-Leasing scandals to battles with successive governments, and every attempt to step into elective politics has ended in humiliation.
His so-called revolution has never connected with voters, and now he is gambling on a candidate who already failed miserably where it mattered most. Wandera’s defeat in the ODM primaries was not a small loss, it was a landslide rejection.
That rejection will follow him into the by-election, and Wanjigi knows it.
This is why his move reeks of desperation. A strong party does not need to beg rejects from other parties to stand on its ticket. Safina under Wanjigi is not reviving, it is sinking further into irrelevance.
The people of Kariobangi North deserve serious leadership, not experiments from billionaires who think they can buy influence.
This is not a political masterstroke, it is the slow, painful burial of Wanjigi’s dream of ever becoming a national force. By betting on losers, he is only proving that he himself is one.
