From piloting to the murky world of politics

BUZZ: Why would you quit aviation for a DJ outfit?

Many people always get shocked by this. Now, flying is a passion, I still fly to this day but smaller aircrafts, I will be a pilot for life but I just did not want to be employed as a pilot anymore.

What do you mean?
Now, the same way I have said flying is a passion, leadership to me is an even greater passion, it surpasses flying by a mile and while I had always wanted to fly for Kenya Airways, the call to leadership was greater and so I left. I know many don’t get why I would quit to run an outfit like Blackstar but it is all about leadership from whichever level.

So why then did you quit Blackstar Entertainment for politics?

I did not quit Blackstar, I am still in the board. I just got an opportunity in politics and I took it. Leadership can be from your village to global. It is not about power, not about State House or Parliament.

Your mother, Jane Waikenda, Kenya’s deputy ambassador to Pretoria is a career civil servant, was she against your joining politics?

My mother initially had a problem with it but she saw my passion and decided to support me and she still does. God bless her.

You were the TNA Director of Communications, how did you get there?

I had hoped that Uhuru Kenyatta would run for president in 2007 and I had even come up with a slogan “Tunagutuka na Uhuru” but he decided to back then president Mwai Kibaki so any plans I had were shelved. But when he became Deputy Prime Minister, I realised he stood a good chance of running in 2013 and I approached him.

With the same slogan?

No. I wanted to set up and manage all his social media platforms. He liked the proposal and gave us the go ahead and we set up all of his platforms which he used for his campaign and still uses them like his official Facebook page and even Twitter account. We also worked on the website and he was really impressed and decided to engage us more.

How did you get to the Director level?

Johnson Sakaja, The National Alliance (TNA) chairman called and said a party was being formed and he wanted a very youthful but ambitious team and wanted me to be part of the party. I said yes and became part of the National Oversight Body where I was the party’s Executive director, the youngest ever since Mwai Kibaki. But then some changes were made and I ended up as the Director of Communications.

The team was pretty young and inexperienced politics wise, how did you manage?

Uhuru Kenyatta was the captain and we followed his tutelage. He has been in politics for a while and he was a good leader. He had assembled a team of like-minded people and because we were inexperienced compared to other camps, we worked harder than everybody else. We slept like three hours every day for months as we had to learn fast. We looked at how other parties around the world were formed from the Democratic Party in the US to the Labour and Conservative Party in the UK. We worked ourselves to the bone. Many had written us off and we had to prove them wrong.

So why or how did you end up in Kiambu County and not State House after the elections?

Like I said before, leadership can be undertaken from the village to a global stage. I saw an opportunity to engage the youth more in Kiambu County and I took it. There is nothing else to it. I am happy in Kiambu and I love the work that we are doing with the community. It is all about service delivery.

What is your major role in the County?

I am there to help empower the youth, speak for them and ensure that the youth agenda put in place by the Jubilee Government and the Governor’s manifesto makes a big difference in the lives of the youth. When it comes to sports, my dream is to turn Kiambu into a sporting giant. Have the most amazing sporting events and programs in the country. All these plans are geared to help give the youth a chance in life.

How do we know this is not just talk?

By setting up personal goals and ensuring that I work with the youth across the county. The first thing I did when I was appointed was to meet youth groups in every corner of the county and hear what it is they want and expect from their government. You will be shocked, they do not want hand outs, they want opportunities and capacity building. We set up a Sh300 million fund for the youth modelled alongside Uwezo Fund and we will be launching it this month.

How important is it to have the youth in positions of leadership?

It is critical. We must step up to the plate otherwise we will have people who do not have our best interests at heart representing us. But you do not have to be in Parliament to make a difference. Start at the local level, right now the counties need leaders in society and that is a good place to start. If you have a good idea, apply for the Uwezo Fund and you can employ people and improve your life, that is also a position of power.

What do you think about President Uhuru Kenyatta dishing out jobs to everybody else but the youth?

Government is not made up of only the few appointments that have been announced. There are a lot more positions to be filled and I believe many of them will go to the youth. Also, we need people with experience in some jobs so we cannot say anybody above say, 40 years should be fired. Even in Kiambu, a lot of the new appointments we are doing are youth. I know the president and his deputy want the youth to prosper.

You are active on social media with your #AskWaikenda ‘movement’

Yes, I started it as a way of giving the youth a chance to talk and say what they think when it comes to jobs and opportunities. It was an opportunity to have a sober discussion online and help give the young people a solution.

Your critics will say that all you do is get people to ‘Ask Waikenda’ but you never give the answers

True. But I do not have all the answers, I want to help start a community where we can bring in mentors and we can get answers to these questions. I do answer those I can but even getting people to talk is important.

How do you unwind?

I love spending time with my wife and child and when time permits, I love to tour Kenya because I had a chance to travel the world at Kenya Airways so now I am trying to discover more of Kenya. I also play golf.