Thread by @DavidNdii

My Chris Kirubi obituary.

I’ve known Chris Kirubi for close to 30 years. We interacted mostly as a client as I have consulted for companies he was involved in over the years, but we were also good friends. CK was a very easygoing person.

But my most memorable encounters with him are political. In the run-up to the first multiparty elections, I was a young economist at the World Bank’s Nairobi office, then known as the Regional Mission in East Africa.

Mission Chief Steve O’Brien pops his head in my office and asks me whether Kirubi and I were acquainted. I said sure. He then asked me accompany him to a meeting with Chris later in the day.

We walked into his International House office, found him watching CNN. After pleasantries, Chris introduced the subject: Mwai Kibaki. For the better part of an hour, Chris extolled Mwai Kibaki’s virtues.

All along, Chris sought my validation of Kibaki’s economic prowess and I had a hard time giving evasive answers, bemused that neither knew I was in the thick of writing FORD’s Post Election Action Programme (PEAP), the precursor to the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA)

As delicately as he could, Steve explained to him that as per the Bank’s articles of association, interference in member countries’ politics was strictly verboten. As soon we entered the lift, Steve “what the hell was that all about?” We laughed all the way to the office.

For some reason, I never got round to asking Chris about it.

Fast forward, two elections later. Its December 30, 2002 and Uhuru Kenyatta had conceded the election the previous day. Mwai Kibaki was set to make an acceptance speech from his Muthaiga residence at 11.00am.

We (Duncan Ndegwa and Gen. Cheruiyot and myself) had a 7.00am appointment to report on an assignment. We arrived shortly before 7.00am and as the gate was opened who is the first person I see? None other than DJ CK himself! The long warm coat suggested he’d been there a while.

Chris had been a high profile member of Uhuru’s campaign team. In fact, he had a few weeks before headlined a Sh1m a plate fundraiser for Uhuru. As the morning wore on, more and more Kenyatta era Kikuyu elite from across the political divide streamed in.

By the time Kibaki was making his acceptance speech, the Kikuyu elite outnumbered the NARC partners three to one in my estimation. I knew right then that a Kikuyu hijack of NARC’s rainbow nation dream was just a matter of time. RIP Chris Kirubi. 12/12