Can Waiguru win?

My friend, Njeri Thorne, will not forgive me if I don't say this: it was a just matter of time before the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission came to its senses and stopped hounding the former Devolution and Planning Cabinet Secretary, Ann Waiguru. The news that the EACC is focussing its attentions elsewhere comes in the wake of the Nairobi politics rumour mill that has it that Ms Waiguru has decided to replace Evans Kidero as the Governor of Nairobi. This is rather fitting.

Nairobi's first governor is an unusual man. Prior to his expression of interest in elective politics, he had a storied career in the private sector, having worked for a global pharmaceutical conglomerate, a national media behemoth and sugar miller. It wasn't until he took on the onerous task of turning around Mumias Sugar Company that Mr Kidero garnered the attentions of the movers and shakers of national politics and his interest in the Governor's seat was piqued. The rest, they say, is history, and what a woeful history it has been.

By the time Mr Kidero was being elected, Nairobians were well-versed with his technical qualifications, especially his much ballyhooed PhD. We were reminded over and over again that the reason Nairobi was in the shitter was because "councillors" were not properly educated nor were they interested in the technical aspects of governing Nairobi. Mr Kidero and his running mate, Mr Mueke, were the panacea for a moribund management team at City Hall. The Slap put paid to that cozy illusion. If Mr Kidero had not assaulted the Nairobi Woman Representative, Nairobians would never have come to appreciate just how out of his depth Mr Kidero was when it came to the management of the affairs of the city.

Now Ms Waiguru has decided to express an interest in the same position that has so damaged Mr Kidero's reputation as a kickass manager. She, too, comes to the game with stellar credentials, less a PhD (which she thinks it's time she completed). The Americans have a saying; fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. We've already had the disappointments of a supermanager with zero political skills and I don't think we want to repeat that experiment.

In Kenya there is a tendency to join politics at the wrong age, usually after one has turned forty and has some "executive" experience either in the public service or the private sector. Ms Waiguru is well-known in the public service, admired in the private sector and has a string of achievements to her name, notably IFMIS and the NYS transformation. She shouldn't put either on her list of achievements, unless she gets the same communications team that guaranteed Uhuru Kenyatta's election victory in 2013.

The IFMIS and the NYS are the reason why Ms Waiguru resigned from office late last year. We have been reminded many times that she was in charge of rolling it out when she worked at the Treasury. Now it turns out that it is a flawed system that was never tested and was used for the colossal 791 million shilling swindle when she was Cabinet Secretary, a sum intimately linked to the tenfold increase in the NYS operating budget to 25 billion shillings annually. If she's looking for a feather in her cap that won't raise hackles, she'd better tout the Huduma Centres that she successfully saw being rolled out throughout the country. They have turned out to be one reason why Kenyans are optimistic that grand graft can be stopped.

However, despite her moxie, technical chops, keen intellect, work ethic, kickass attitude and all-round can-do spirit, Nairobi is not for her. There is a reason why the County Assembly's members still sit on plastic seats in their chamber; they desperately need missiles to lob at each other when debate gets out of hand which is a common occurrence. But more crucially, Nairobi politics demands the kind of hardball, cutthroat, crass, by-the-balls politicking that Ferdinand Waititu, Mike Sonko and Rachel Shebesh revel in, and something that I am sure Ms Waiguru will not be able to match, especially now that Mr Kidero knows that in Nairobi, being a gentleman is an invitation to getting ones ass kicked. Ms Waiguru would have to adopt the tone and behaviour of a city councillor from the 1990s in order to become the Governor. Can she do it?