Kenya Insights

Tag: David Ndii

  • On Uthamaki’s Bogeyman Politics: Time to Call the Demonization of President Ruto What It Is

    On Uthamaki’s Bogeyman Politics: Time to Call the Demonization of President Ruto What It Is

    By David Ndii

    In the days leading to President William Ruto’s swearing-in, some supporters reportedly sent apologies to the President-elect explaining that they would not attend the Garden Party at State House. Instead, after leaving Kasarani, they would “turn right” to address what they described as a long-standing matter.

    That “long-standing matter” was historical land injustices in Kiambu. Their immediate target was said to be the vast Kenyatta family estates between Kasarani and Gatundu, though not exclusively those holdings.

    As I wrote in my earlier op-ed, Of Land and the Luo Bogeyman, during my childhood one could walk from Limuru to Gatundu without stepping on land owned by a peasant farmer.

    The Kikuyu class divide between Uthamaki and Mungiki remains arguably Kenya’s most potent political problem. As explained in the op-ed, it contributed to the fallout between Jaramogi Oginga Odinga and Jomo Kenyatta and to Daniel arap Moi’s rise to the vice presidency in what I have previously described as the Kikuyu-Kalenjin “power-for-land” pact.

    Kikuyu class conflict has long been suppressed through the political tactic of manufacturing a siege mentality by inventing external enemies or political bogeymen. Jaramogi became the first victim of this politics. When it appeared that Jomo Kenyatta’s health was failing and Tom Mboya seemed poised to ascend to power, Mboya was assassinated and the bogeyman narrative expanded to target the entire Luo community through the 1969 oathing ceremonies.

    Jomo survived the 1969 heart attack, but by the mid-1970s the question was not whether succession would happen, but when.

    Those of us who, as we say in Gikuyu, have “eaten a bit more salt” can relate the demonization of William Ruto to the succession politics that unfolded during the Kenyatta era between the “Change the Constitution” campaign and the Njonjo inquiry. Those unfamiliar with that history can revisit it in Karimi and Ochieng’s book, The Kenyatta Succession.

    Moi began his presidency by attempting to appease Uthamaki. I recall him frequently speaking Kikuyu and, on one occasion, delivering an entire prayer in the language. “Fuata Nyayo” was intended as an olive branch. But Uthamaki would have none of it.

    The bogeyman campaign quickly began. How, people asked, could the country be led by a herdsman? Kikuyu masses were reassured that Moi was merely a passing cloud and that normal service would soon resume.

    The hostility peaked during the 1983 Rungiri church service where Kiambu tycoon Samuel Githegi, in the presence of Charles Njonjo, declared: iguthua ndongoria itikinyagira nyeki — a flock led by a lame sheep does not find pasture.

    Many Kenyans, particularly younger generations and those unfamiliar with history, believe the violence that accompanied the return of multiparty politics in 1992 was unprecedented. In reality, the violence mirrored the political turmoil that preceded the 1963 elections.

    Yet Moi, the supposed bogeyman, the “passing cloud,” and the “limping sheep,” retired on his own terms.

    Eventually, Uthamaki returned to power. Ironically, it was the political calculations of the so-called bogeyman alliance that made it possible: Moi’s Uhuru project and Raila Odinga’s “Kibaki Tosha” declaration. Moi appeared to believe that safeguarding his post-retirement interests required returning power to Uthamaki. Raila, meanwhile, realized that a divided opposition would ultimately hand victory to Uhuru Kenyatta.

    Almost overnight, Raila became a Kikuyu hero. But the alliance was short-lived.

    Mwai Kibaki was elected under a new political dispensation that promised to end tribalism and deliver a new constitution within 100 days. Uthamaki, however, had different ideas, which John Michuki famously rationalized through the metaphor of “handling liver” to describe the slippery nature of power.

    Kibaki’s capture by Uthamaki ideology cost him the disputed 2007 re-election and pushed the country to the brink of civil war. Had the NARC Memorandum of Understanding been honoured, Kibaki would likely have secured a second term with ease.

    Instead, Uthamaki embarked on what was described as gucokia rui mukaro — returning the river to its original course. Michuki began speaking Kikuyu in official meetings. Jomo Kenyatta’s portrait replaced Moi’s on the currency. The NARC dream collapsed, and the country has continued paying the price ever since.

    I briefly advised Uhuru Kenyatta when he was opposition leader. The stint was short-lived because I lacked the deferential temperament expected of palace courtiers. One piece of advice I gave him was to rise above ethnic political mobilization.

    Our last conversation was a brief phone call after I watched him on television being symbolically enthroned as muthamaki by Michuki and others. Had he resisted that path, he might have avoided ending up at the International Criminal Court. Then again, he might never have become president, considering that ICC sympathy significantly boosted his political fortunes.

    The Uhuru-Ruto alliance was born out of an existential threat. They understood that if they did not stand together, they would fall separately. But once the ICC threat subsided, Uthamaki reverted to its default settings. “Hustler” and “Tanga Tanga” politics followed.

    Uhuru’s legacy, in my view, will forever be tainted by the Building Bridges Initiative, the 2022 Bomas coup allegations, and continued attempts to undermine his successor. Why? Two reasons stand out.

    The first is money.

    Take the 11,000-acre Ruiru landholding. Northlands City alone occupies about 5,000 acres. At a conservative estimate of Sh50 million per acre, that translates to roughly Sh250 billion in land value, much of it surrounded by longstanding questions regarding acquisition records.

    The second is dynastic hubris.

    The 2010 Constitution outlawed individual portraits on Kenyan currency. When new currency designs were reportedly presented to Kibaki, with Uhuru serving as Finance Minister, Kibaki allegedly reacted angrily. A compromise was eventually reached, replacing the portrait with the Kenyatta International Convention Centre while still prominently featuring Jomo Kenyatta’s statue.

    I am also told he reacted similarly to the proposed Bomas of Kenya Convention Centre project during a meeting in Paris, allegedly because it would overshadow the KICC.

    To my friend Hassan Omar, you owe no apology for speaking your truth.

    To my Kalenjin brothers and sisters, remain calm. This too shall pass. Moi overcame it, and William Ruto will as well.

    To the opposition, Kikuyu voters have for many election cycles been mobilized to elect “one of our own” while simultaneously voting against Raila Odinga. There is little reason for them to wake up early and vote for you now. Uhuru Kenyatta and Rigathi Gachagua do not possess a unified Kikuyu vote to deliver. They are pursuing personal political interests.

    To Uhuru Kenyatta, Rigathi Gachagua, Uthamaki ideologues, and ethnic chauvinists more broadly, normal service is not resuming. The bogeyman politics has run its course.

    And to my fellow sons and daughters of Gikuyu and Mumbi, I leave you with three questions: What has Uthamaki done for us? How exactly has President Ruto wronged us? Kihooto kiha?

    Writer is the chairperson of the Presidential Council of Economic Advisers.

    Originally published on X, May 27, 2026

  • David Ndii At The Center Of Controversial JKIA-Adani Deal, Court Documents Reveal

    David Ndii At The Center Of Controversial JKIA-Adani Deal, Court Documents Reveal

    The government could have been quietly engaging Adani Group to lease Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) for over a year, fresh details have emerged in court.

    In a case where President William Ruto’s principal economic advisor David Ndii is named as a person who had been aware of the deal, it is alleged that the Indian conglomerate through Adani Airports Holding Ltd – had on April 25, 2023, submitted to Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) a privately initiated proposal (PIP) for development of JKIA under public-private partnership arrangement.

    According to Tony Gachoka, Jubilee Party, Wiper Party, Democratic Action Party Kenya (DAP-K) and Mount Kenya, Adani PIP was copied to Ndii, the National Treasury and the Ministry of Roads and Transport.

    However, Gachoka’s lawyer Ndegwa Njiru claims that they remained tight-lipped about the deal until this year when Adani allegedly floated its PIP.

    Adani in its case claimed that it floated the idea to refurbish JKIA on March 1, 2024, after seeing the deteriorating state of the international airport in the media.

    However, the Njiru alleged that the deal was being worked backwards in order to favour the firm. He argued that the idea to directly procure the construction of a new passenger terminal at JKIA was done with the Adani Group in mind.

    The lawyer alleged that through a contract dated December 13, 2023, KAA  procured advisory services for the construction of a new passenger terminal building at JKIA.

    He told the court the team recommended an Airport PPP as opposed to a terminals PIP as the most beneficial to Kenya.

    President William Ruto’s adviser David Ndii.

    “Unsurprisingly, on March 1, 2024, the second respondent submitted to the KAA its PIP for the development of JKIA under PPP arrangements. On the same day, the JKIA submitted the said proposal to the 9th respondent PS Mohammed Daghar who on the same day submitted the proposal to the PS National Treasury Chris Kiptoo. The petitioners earnestly believe these activities did not take place on 1 March 2024 as demonstrated,” argued Ndegwa.

    The court heard that contrary to the government’s claim that Adani was the only firm interested in developing JKIA, other firms had floated their proposals. The lawyer claimed that Abu Dhabi, China Road and Bridge Corporation and Motar Etgil Africa/Corporation America JV had proposed to develop JKIA through PPP. He said that despite the documents being before KAA), the government never disclosed them same to the public.

    “By a further letter dated June 12, 2023, referencing “Proposed Construction of a Second Runway at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) the 9th respondent  PS Mohamed Daghar stated that the KAA had not formally submitted the PIP submitted by Adani Airport Holdings Ltd and their preliminary appraisal of the same,” claimed Ndegwa..
    He further claimed that PIP for JKIA submitted by Adani is lopsided and subversive of Kenya’s public interest.

    Ndegwa said that despite the government drumming up for the firm to take over JKIA for 30 years, no one can put a finger on how much Adani had invested or will pump to the project.

    The lawyer alleged that the Indian firm is being gifted JKIA without paying a penny.

    “Adani Group PIP does not specify the exact amount to be invested despite the fact that investment is the principal criterion for PPP under the 2011 Policy on PPPs and subsequent legislations. For all practical purposes, the existing and potential revenue of JKIA are simply being transferred to the 2nd Respondent and its undisclosed Kenyan partners to invest for their private gain. This is a clear case of sovereign robbery,” claimed Ndegwa.

    The court heard that the government is going against a 2019 Parliament report that shielded JKIA from privatization or control by foreigners.

  • David Ndii: From A Bold Thinker To Ruto’s Controversial Power Broker

    David Ndii: From A Bold Thinker To Ruto’s Controversial Power Broker

    For the close to four decades he’s graced public life, David Mwangi Ndii has flown close to the sun, exuding unmistakable intellectual arrogance but also lending the best of his brains to the service of the country.

    The Oxford-trained economist has made zero attempts to be modest on his achievements, has not suffered fools gladly, and is lately- at the peak of his public life- goading over critics of President William Ruto’s administration.

    Like Mutahi Ngunyi in the previous administration, Ndii now occupies a central place in the present kitchen cabinet, serving as the head of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors.

    Birds of the same feather, both men, through their brains, mouths, and wild ideas, talked their way to the center of power.

    In the early 90’s, Ndii alongside Prof Anyang Nyong’o founded the Institute of Economic Affairs, the first of its kind as a think-tank. Together, they began to build castles in the air, as the ruling KANU and a split opposition squared it out in the rough and tumble of practical politics.

    Of those days, he was described by his comrade John Githongo as “a person of tremendous intellect and moral clarity.” “That combination makes him very profound,” Githongo once said.

    It was during that period that the seminal work- Blueprint for a New Kenya: Post-Election Action Program (PEAP’94) developed by IEA with the support of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, was produced.

    Partly due to this paper, and other work the organization was undertaking together with Ndii’s group, empowering opposition groups, FNF’s regional director Dorothee von Brentano was expelled from the country.

    Together with its sequel; “Our Problems, Our Solutions” of 1998, “Crossroads: Scenarios for our Future,” PEAP’94, through Ndii, weaved its way into NARC’s Economic Recovery Strategy (ERS) of 2003, and much later into Vision 2030.

    Thus, and long before his present role, Ndii had been one of the country’s most consequential economists, political players, and the “public intellectual” he fancies himself to be.

    Great commentator

    However, in that glorious past, Ndii was always swimming in the fringes. He outclassed all in public commentary, in text, audio and video. He wrote many  newspaper columns and participated in countless interviews.

    His original forays into NARC administration through Nyong’o were, to a large extent short-lived. No sooner had they begun to implement ERS than NARC imploded from within, and Ndii’s group found itself back in the trenches.

    He would spend the next decade in local and international consultancies, civil society and occasionally rousing up controversy with his writings. It is during this period that he firmed up his brand of politics, the one he called “politics without romance.”

    “Kenya is a cruel marriage, it’s time we talk divorce,” he wrote on March 25, 2016.

    In this article, Ndii proposed the splitting up of Kenya into four nations, Coast, Somali, Luo, and Mt Kenya nations: “Kenya is for the most part an abusive relationship. It is about time we start talking about ending it. This ought not to be a difficult conversation.”

    Just when Ndii was giving up on Kenya, he teamed up with his old comrades to give structure and vision to Raila Odinga’s fourth bid for presidency in 2017. Despite a lot of hubris and fire in the belly of the NASA juggernaut, Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the winner and Ndii’s group was shattered once more.

    Not even the Supreme Court’s invalidation of Uhuru’s win could help their lot, as Raila boycotted the repeat poll, handing Jubilee an easy win. A turbulent period ensued, during which Raila was sworn in as the people’s president before he bolted and cut a “handshake” deal with Uhuru.

    With the handshake, Ndii and his band of loyalists were left hanging precariously to a lost dream, and with police cases to deal with. Ndii began to slowly but strategically walk away.

    He initially found succour in a phantom movement which went by the name Linda Katiba, whose stated purpose was to protect the constitution but which turned out to have been holding brief for his next stop of political wanderings.

    Linda Katiba

    Then Deputy President William Ruto became the biggest beneficiary of Linda Katiba when they successfully stopped the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) of amending the constitution, spearheaded by his opponents President Uhuru Kenyatta and Ndii’s erstwhile ally, Raila.

    When David Ndii as NASA strategist addressed a press conference over the 2017 disputed presidential results.

    “Linda Katiba’s colleagues knew I was in Ruto’s team. I mooted the collaboration at a civil society meeting hosted by the Kenya Human Rights Commission. Martha Karua and I consulted with Ruto in Karen on at least two occasions, I remember,” Ndii confessed on May 12 this year.

    Plucked by Ruto from civil society to craft Kenya Kwanza’s “The Plan” and to offer intellectual succour to the then fledgling “bottom-up” manifesto, Ndii took the assignment with gusto, perhaps seeing a grand opportunity to bounce back.

    “I had never met him until three years ago, we had spoken on the phone a couple of times, but we had never met,” Ndii told a Universal Health Coverage collaborative meeting a few weeks ago.

    Fast forward, Ruto won the election, and Ndii took his rightful place at the State House as the head of the CEA. The colours of Ndii began to change, dramatically. The Ndii of government and Ndii the public intellectual turned out to be totally different personas.

    The Ndii of government discarded the public intellectual garb and embraced all the practical realities, including evils, of running a base government. He began to easily countenance graft, waste, and impunity.

    “The first obligation of a government is political survival and political stability. The more the dynasties foment destabilization the more we will have to spend on political capital,” he wrote on X.

    Perched at the centre of power, Ndii now began to see the government as a necessary evil. At its core, he’s said, is a co-existence pact that occasionally breaks down into orgies of violence.

     “The rest is frills and fanciful romance,” he says.

    Day by day, he began to grow more and more impatient with those who raised a voice against Ruto’s policies, something he did for many years against Moi, Kibaki and Uhuru.

    “Go drying,” “githeri media”, “empty-head”, “imbecile”, and “warthog” suddenly became his responsorial terms to critics. The opposition he played for, suddenly became child play.

    When Senator Ledama Ole Kina attempted to challenge him on alleged congestion in the port of Mombasa, he dismissed his views as “cattle-herding logic”, reminding him ports are not cattle bomas.

    “Grin and bear it,” he told Waikwa Wanyoike when he demanded a legal framework to guide and circumscribe the mandate of the Office of the First Lady Rachel Ruto.

    He began to feel nothing about the Judiciary and its activism, which he said only breeds more corruption and diminished judicial authority. Between an order to stop by the Chief Justice of Kenya Martha Koome, and a police constable, Ndii would only, promptly obey the latter.

    Political hecklers

    His pro-NASA views on overtaxing a comatose economy evaporated in the thin air. He now claimed those views were in the context of Covid era, and that markets have since opened.

    “That popping sound you hear is Azimio bubble bursting,” he would occasionally take a break to throw a jibe.

    He now could not debate “youth wingers” and “hecklers” who were in diapers when he was debating their fathers.

    “The political debate in the country is, to a very considerable extent, about my ideas. The thought of sharing a platform with political hecklers is hilarious,” he wrote on X.

    More and more, he took greater pride in himself as the sculptor of Bottom Up philosophy which he placed beside the two other consequential ideas of independent Kenya; African Socialism of 1965 and Second Liberation of the early 90’s.

    He defended the political reward system against professional cadres, saying that prioritizing the cadres over those who sacrificed for Kenya Kwanza is to live in a fool’s paradise.

    There is no better season to study the new Ndii than the run-up to the Gen Z protests and their aftermath. He openly relished in the “political impotence of the chattering classes”, and called the protesters “digital wanks”, mocking the protesters as “cool kids”.

     “Politics is a contact sport. Digital activism is just wanking. Any jackass can kick down a barn but it takes a good carpenter to build one,” he wrote on June 14.

     Unarguably, Ndii’s rhetoric at this time spewed from the comfort of his State House office, added fuel to the fire of the protesters who are avid consumers of social media.

    He was unapologetic, unrepentant. When Gen Zs set about to “greet” public figures, he described them as “children of the plunderers who have bankrupted the state” and the “corruption cartels I have been battling since before they were born.”

    And when he saw his old comrades trying to lend a hand to the protesters, he called them out:

    “Willy, our time in the trenches is up. We fought for a new political dispensation. We achieved it. You may not like the people in power benefiting from your struggle but who Kenyans choose is not your call.”

    He railed the former Chief Justice for missing the turning point and asked him to come to terms with it. On the day protesters flattened the Parliament fence, Ndii was flattening people on X, calling them warthogs.

    Yet, the Bill which had caused the ruckus was, by and large, his brainchild, together with his team of economic advisors. The man who paid the ultimate price for it, Prof Njuguna Ndung’u the Finance CS, was simply the face of it.

    The team had been getting away with everything since they were appointed. The Finance Bill of 2023 had equally been unpopular but they had managed to have it passed. The dropping of the subsidies program too.

    Consolidating power

    Caught flatfooted by the intensity of the protests, the president admitted he could have listened more to what the people were saying. But Ndii and people around the presidency insisted that these were no ordinary protests, a position the president slowly adopted.

    “Leaderlessness opened the youth peaceful Finance Bill protest, which I support, to infiltration by delusional anarchists. I speak from experience. I am a veteran of the streets,” he tweeted.

    In the aftermath of the protests, Ndii took every chance to mock them, describing them as rudderless, tactless and clueless. On August 18, he gloated that Ruto had pulled the rug from under the feet of the protesters, and was now consolidating his political power.

    The Ndii in government has made it clear that it is no longer his work to fight corruption in government. Long before Kenya Kkwanza won, he put the country on notice that they were not running on an anti-corruption platform.

    Much later when in government, he declared that he had long paid his dues on matters fighting corruption through his stellar work at Transparency International. And this while corruption was throbbing in government.

    “I am not your watchdog. Do your work!”

    And as murmurs filtered through on what appeared to be a serious conflict of interest, and possibly corruption relating to the Adani Group web on interest in the Kenyan economy, Ndii rubbed it further:

    “Let me restate: We will leave Kenya as corrupt as we found it. On this Sunday, I suggest you contemplate your own life and leave the other sinners to contemplate theirs,” he wrote on September 15.

    Despite all these, there is a consensus which appears to find favour with President Ruto, that the man knows his stuff. Very few people who know his history would begrudge his economics acumen or hold a candle to his intellect.

    He had his fair share of time in the trenches and did an amazing job. Those who know also say his backroom work in stabilizing the economy after the odious borrowing spree of the previous administration is somewhat commendable.

    By Nzau Musau

  • Web Of Firms That Will Be Running Kenya’s New Healthcare System

    Web Of Firms That Will Be Running Kenya’s New Healthcare System

    As Kenyan transitions its healthcare system from the National Health Insurance Fund to the Social Health Authority (SHA), including the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF) and Healthcare Fund, a staggering deal worth hundreds of billions is unfolding, with a web of elites poised to reap the benefits.

    Among those set to profit are President , influential businessmen and powerful figures in the corporate world, all linked to the Ministry of Health.

    They will control the Social Health Authority (SHA), which manages three funds – the Primary Healthcare Fund, receiving Sh50 billion from the government; the Social Health Insurance Fund, raising Sh148 billion annually through member contributions and the Emergency, Chronic and Critical Illnesses Fund requiring Sh75 billion yearly.

    The SHIF deal, operational from October 1, 2024, aims to replace the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) with a new system requiring all households to contribute 2.75 per cent of their monthly income. This represents a significant increase for wealthier households, with some paying up to Sh27,500 monthly compared to the NHIF’s capped contributions of Sh1,700.

    At the heart of the deal is Apeiro Ltd, which holds the largest stake of 59.5 per cent in the consortium contracted to implement the UHC technology-based system.

    Other members include Safaricom, with a 22.6 per cent stake, and Konvergenz Network Solutions, with 17.9 per cent. Apeiro, a recently registered Kenyan company, has deep ties to international corporate giants and key figures in President Ruto’s circle.

    Apeiro is a subsidiary of Sirius International Holdings, which in turn is a part of Abu Dhabi’s International Holding Company (IHC), a firm with ties to India’s Adani Group. The company’s directors include Mwende Gatabaki, the wife of President Ruto’s economic adviser, David Ndii.

    “Our aim is to ensure that everyone can access , contributing to financially sustainable universal health coverage for all. We stand at the junction of Health and Technology, offering countries assistance throughout their healthcare transformation journey,” the company states on its website.

    David Ndii, a figure often mired in controversy, has faced scrutiny for his public statements on Kenya’s governance. He recently commented on corruption, stating, “We will leave Kenya as corrupt as we found it”.

    Safaricom, another major player in the SHIF deal, is Kenya’s leading telecommunications company whose board is chaired by lawyer Adil Khawaja.

    The SHIF is not the only deal under scrutiny. Mr Silas Simotwo, closely tied to an insurance company — a firm linked to President Ruto — has been appointed to chair the Digital Health Fund, a key component of the authority that will oversee SHIF operations.

    manages several healthcare funds, including the Primary Healthcare Fund (allocated Sh50 billion) and the Emergency, Chronic, and Critical Illnesses Fund, which requires Sh75 billion yearly.

    The NHIF transition comes amidst widespread public concern over the cost of contributions for the new fund and the overall transparency of the deal. Households across the country are required to contribute a portion of their income to SHIF, with wealthier families seeing their payments soar. This shift is a marked contrast to the previous NHIF model, where most families contributed a flat rate.

  • Economic Advisor Who Was Fired By Two Presidents

    Economic Advisor Who Was Fired By Two Presidents

    “From archives to this day… Kenyans are hoping that the man once rejected by two Presidents still have some magic not yet revealed. Will his bottoms up economic model that has kicked off with Ksh. 500 given to the hustlers- soon prove to be the philosophers stone?”

    In 2003, David Ndii was tasked by former President Mwai Kibaki to develop an Economic Recovery Strategic Plan to bolster the economy under the NARC Government.

    He was to work closely with Governor Anyang’ Nyong’o, who was then the Minister for Planning and National Development. He found a way to avoid being guided through by Nyong’o, as he wanted to get all the credit for the plan.

    “Upon completion of the paper, Ndii handed it over to the then Head of Civil Service Amb. Francis Muthaura, who was also a close confidant of President Mwai Kibaki. When Muthaura shared the paper with Kibaki, the president trashed it saying, “This reads like a first-year economics essay.”

    “President Kibaki then called Joseph Kinyua, who was then Permanent Secretary for Planning, and instructed him to rewrite the paper. Mr. Kinyua brought together a solid team to work on this and the end product of their assignment is what we know today as Vision 2030 Economic Blueprint.

    “Ndii felt slighted. He resulted to spewing sour grapes against Kibaki’s handling of the economy by fighting his economic programs in his regular newspaper columns. He reserved his punches on the infrastructure projects which were being implemented on the strength of the Vision 2030.

    He often referred to the ambitious Thika Superhighway as a white elephant project. Mind you the superhighway has in the last 12 years unlocked in a huge way the economic potential of areas along the 50KM stretch that it cuts through.

    Fast forward to 2008, when President Paul Kagame’s government reached out to Kenya for assistance to recruit top advisors to his administration. The then Rwandan Ambassador engaged Prof. Mutahi Ngunyi to help with the recruitment process, from among the country’s top intellectuals. Ndii was among the people who was recruited in this process, as an economic advisor.

    The salary negotiated with World Bank for Ndii’s services was $20,000, an equivalent of Ksh2 million per month based on current exchange rates. After three Months, allegedly the Rwandan ambassador called Prof. Ngunyi and lamented that he was going to fire one of the guys he had recruited.

    The guy to be fired happened to be Ndii, and the reasons for his firing included incompetence and a condescending attitude. He would abuse members of the mainly youthful team (some of them drawn from Tony Blair’s Delivery Unit). He demoralized the team and he himself could not deliver.

    “The incompetent, problematic man rejected by 2 sitting presidents is now the lead economic advisor; the one energetically pushing a phoney economic model which he has branded as wheelbarrow-nomics,” wrote Pauline Njoroge on Facebook.

    WHO IS DAVID NDII?

    David Ndii (born in Kiambu, Kenya) is an economist, columnist, and author. He is described as “one of Africa’s best-known economists and an outspoken anti-corruption crusader.

    He is a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University. Ndii holds a doctorate and master’s degrees in economics from Oxford, masters and bachelor’s degrees from the University of Nairobi.

    For several years, he was chief strategist of the National Super Alliance coded NASA.

    He later became an open critic of the economic policy of the Uhuru Kenyatta administration, writing several open letters and tweets criticizing the government’s economic policies and borrowing of loans.  

    Ndii opposed Kenyatta and Prime Minister Raila Odinga handshake project, called the BBI. Together with other activists, he petitioned the High Court of Kenya in the landmark case, which was argued all the way to the Supreme Court of Kenya, leading to the collapse of the Building Bridges Initiative.

    He would go on to support the presidential bid of William Ruto. He subsequently was involved in crafting the Kenya Kwanza manifesto, which was anchored on the bottom-up economic model.

    After Ruto won the Presidency, Ndii was appointed the chairperson of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors (CEA) in President Ruto’s State House. Many are now curious if his economic model will work as anticipated or get a third sacking?

  • David Ndii: Miguna Miguna Is A Deep State Mouth Assassin

    David Ndii: Miguna Miguna Is A Deep State Mouth Assassin

    David Ndii, a leading Kenyan Economist and public intellectual has slammed Dr Miguna Miguna, a Canada based Kenyan, Pan-African revolutionary intellectual, Lawyer, Writer who claims to be fighting for justice using words, facts, and truths on Twitter that he is a mouth assassin of Kenya’s most lethal deep State.

    David Ndii was responding to tweets that the self-declared revolutionary leaders Miguna Miguna had posted earlier in the day poking more holes into what transpired event by another until he was ejected from the country in front of His former people’s president Raila Odinga.

    On responding to what the senior Economist had posted earlier about him, Dr. Miguna said that David Ndii, Raila Odinga, Jimmy Wanjigi and George Mboya went behind his back and snitched him to Kenya Police. According to Miguna, they gave Police evidence that saw him deported from Kenya to Canada.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • David Ndii: Raila Odinga Is A Let Down

    David Ndii: Raila Odinga Is A Let Down

    Senior Kenyan and internationally recognized Economist David Ndii has sneered AU’s High Representative for Infrastructure Development in Africa and NASA leader Raila Odinga stating that he is a let down to the entire opposition fraternity.

    The former NASA chief strategist quoted a tweet from ODM’s party leader with, “We have truly lost this one. What a letdown.”

    Ndii was responding to a tweet by Raila who posted a photo of himself with President Uhuru Kenyatta’s sister Kristina Pratt after they met at his Capitol Hill office in Nairobi.

    Raila is seen on the photo to be handing Pratt a copy of his book – The flame of freedom.

    Raila ties with Kenya’s great minds were cut loose after the former fierce opposition leader was assuaged by his dealings with Uhuru through the Handshake.

    The Handshake has edged off all Raila’s hardliners who have failed to recognize Uhuru as the country’s legitimate President after the 2017 polls. Since then, Raila has been receiving diplomats, state officials, politicians and diplomats at his Capitol Hill office.

  • Ndii: Keep The Treasury CS Job I Can’t Work With Uhuru

    Ndii: Keep The Treasury CS Job I Can’t Work With Uhuru

    Senior Economist David Ndii has rubbished off chances of him working for President Uhuru Kenyatta’s administration as Finance Cabinet Secretary.

    Ndii’s declaration comes a day after the arrest of Treasury CS Henry Rotich.

    Rotich, if he won’t resign, could probably be fired by Uhuru after DPP Noordin Haji linked him directly to the alleged loss of more that 19Billion meant for the construction of Kimwarer and Arror dams in Elgeyo-Marakwet County.

    Earlier In April, President Uhuru said that he will only sack those prosecuted in accordance with the law.

    “I must, however, caution that the pursuit of the corrupt will be undertaken strictly within the remits of the law, and not through vigilante justice and pitchfork protest. Though media narratives rally our resolve as they should, our actions will not be based on condemnation before one has been heard. The cornerstone of our democracy is the rule of law, and the principle of due process is a critical anchor.” President Kenyatta said.

    “It is not enough to merely jail and fine those who have looted our public coffers. The wealth they stole from Kenyans must be returned to its owners, the People of Kenya with the clear message being that Corruption does not pay,” President Uhuru added.

    CS Rotich was today arraigned in court alongside PS Kamau Thugge, in what is believed to be a move that could lead Cabinet reshuffle.

    With that out, David Ndii, one of loyal supporters and strategist of the former Prime Minister Raila Odinga has once again turned down requests and suggestions to take over the leadership of the Treasury.

    According to Ndii, Uhuru’s regime and reign is and will always remain illegitimate.

    Ndii posted this on his verified Twitter account.

    “Public Notice: I’m not available to work for Uhuru Kenyatta’s corrupt illegitimate govt. Those thinking corruption/ economy can be fixed in Treasury are gravely mistaken. National crisis will persist until a financial implosion or Jubilee is out of power whichever comes first,”

    David Ndii was responding to a tweet that had proposed him for the Treasury job.

    Ndii is one of, if not, the best economist in the country and also has international recognition in the same field of profession.

  • Kenya Is A Cruel Marriage, It’s Time We Talk Divorce

    Kenya Is A Cruel Marriage, It’s Time We Talk Divorce

    By DAVID NDII

    A decade ago, Prof Bethuel Ogot, one of the country’s towering intellectuals, pronounced the “Kenya project” dead. Kenya has never been a more distant idea than it is now at the beginning of the 21st Century. Nationalism is dead, replaced by sub-nationalism. The tribe has eaten the nation. A few years ago, the country exploded into an orgy of political violence.

    There may be some people who will be wondering why Prof Ogot is talking about Kenya in terms of projects and ideas. Is Kenya not a concrete reality, an internationally recognised sovereign state?

    Although the notion of a nation as an idea is an old one, it is Benedict Anderson’s 1983 book Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism that offered the most cogent articulation of the concept, and in so doing shaped the contemporary study of nationalism.

    In essence then, belonging to a nation is simply the sense of connectedness with people one does not know and is unlikely ever to meet. The intellectual problem of the study of nationalism is understanding why and how people develop or fail to develop this belonging. Of note, the fact that this connectedness is not necessarily unproblematic.

    Horizontal comradeship

    As Anderson puts it: “Regardless of the actual inequality and exploitation that may prevail in each, the nation is always conceived as a deep, horizontal comradeship. Ultimately it is this fraternity that makes it possible, over the past two centuries, for so many millions of people, not so much to kill, as willingly to die for such limited imaginings.”

    The meaning of Prof Ogot’s pronouncement should now be clear. It is a failure of the imagination. The failure to develop and propagate a national narrative alluring enough to nurture a “deep, horizontal comradeship” beyond the tribe. The reasons for the failure of Kenyan nationalism is a subject for historians to ponder. When the history is written, four squandered opportunities will stand out.

    The first was a decision by Jomo Kenyatta’s Kanu’s administration after independence that wealth was more important than people. Jomo Kenyatta himself metamorphosed from an erudite fiery nationalist to a parochial acquisitive tribalist.
    The second opportunity came in 1992. The transition to multiparty politics afforded the Opposition leaders opportunity to set the country on a different political trajectory. Tribalism got the better of them.

    The third one came a decade later in 2003 when the country elected Mwai Kibaki on a platform of inclusive politics. Kibaki tore up the political covenant, tribalised the government and went back to the post-independence doctrine of wealth above all else.

    Kibaki’s administration

    The fourth is between the enactment of the new Constitution in 2010 and the 2013 General Election. It is a period of contest between the political values espoused in the Constitution — democracy, rule of law, transparency and ethical leadership on the one hand, and tribalism and corruption of the past on the other. Tribalism and corruption triumphed.
    We are now hurtling towards another election more ethnically polarised and angry than ever before. Our election arbiters, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission and the Supreme Court, are corrupted and discredited. As I have observed in this column before, all our multiparty elections with an incumbent president defending have been violent. If Uhuru Kenyatta is declared winner in another sham election, this country will burn.

    Where we go, thereafter, is a matter of conjecture. What I do not see is another accept and move on — the tyranny of peace could only have been a one-shot game. Another mediated grand coalition is a remote possibility, but to what end? The last one was predicated on the enactment of a new Constitution — we have it, we don’t respect it.

    It is a matter of record that the Coast has harboured separatist aspirations for a long time. The ongoing tribulations of governors Hassan Joho and Amason Kingi are only the latest additions to a long list of indignities visited upon the region and its leaders by the overbearing centre.

    Nelson Marwa

    In Nelson Marwa, President Kenyatta would seem to have found a commissar in the exact mould of Eliud Mahihu, his father’s nasty overbearing Coast supremo. Ngima yumaga mutu-ini (Ugali comes from flour).

    The Coast has all the important building blocks of a successful nation — a common language, a long political history and cultural heritage, a deep sense of a shared identity as “watu wa pwani”, and grievance.

    With its 500km coastline, an exclusive maritime economic zone five times its landmass, historical trade and cultural ties with the Arab peninsula and the wider Indian Ocean rim, and millions of people in its landlocked hinterland, the Coast nation will be starting off on a very strong economic footing.

    The Somali part of the country never wanted to be part of it in the first place. From the brutal Shifta war, to the Wagalla Massacre to the latest round-up of Somali’s under the so-called Operation Linda Nchi, no part of the country has suffered for Kenyan nationalism like North-Eastern, and the Somali population in general.

    And yet, the State continues to treat them as second-class citizens, and some of us now see every Somali as a potential terrorist. What does Somali Kenya have to lose? Nothing. What does it have to gain? Dignity.

    The Luo Nation. From Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Ochieng’ Oneko, Tom Mboya, Argwings Kodhek, Robert Ouko and Raila Odinga— no other nation has sacrificed so much for so little in the name of Kenya project.

    Discrimination of other tribes

    It is perhaps fitting and inevitable that it is a Luo intellectual who pronounced the failure of the project. I think it is about time that the Luo Nation asked itself whether it is not time to cut its losses.

    The Mt Kenya Nation. The ten counties that have constituted themselves as Central Kenya (Kiambu, Murang’a, Nyeri, Kirinyaga, Embu, Nyandarua, Meru, Tharaka-Nithi, Laikipia and Nakuru) have about the same population (8.5 million) and land area (40,000 sq.km) as Switzerland. Switzerland, despite being landlocked and a non-member of the EU, is the most prosperous country in Europe.

    There is an increasingly popular narrative in the region that it contributes a disproportionate share of revenue to the Exchequer and gets much less than its fair share.

    It is the narrative underpinning Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria’s “Punda Amechoka” signature initiative. If that be the case, the region, I should say we, have the most to gain economically from autonomy.

    The challenge for the Mt Nation is its large diaspora, particularly the land-owning ones in the Rift Valley and at the Coast.

    But these are issues that the respective nations would be left to resolve bilaterally. It is not fair that all the nations should be dragged into wars or live under tyranny because of Kikuyu and Kalenjin nations land feuds.

    The country still broke up — balkanised to be specific, into six successful ethnic nations (Serbia may yet yield one or two more). They could have broken up peacefully like the Soviet Union.
    What are we waiting for, a genocide? Reke tumanwo (We’d better go our separate ways).

    [email protected]

    PROF DAVID NDII IS AN ECONOMIST AND PUBLIC INTELLECTUAL.

    THIS ARTICLE WAS FIRST PUBLISHED BY THE DAILY NATION