Safina party leader and 2027 presidential hopeful Jimi Wanjigi during a previous address. PHOTO | COURTESY
Safina party leader and 2027 presidential hopeful Jimi Wanjigi has said his primary objective if elected the country’s Head of State at the next polls would be to eradicate poverty, arguing that poverty remains the root cause of many of Kenya’s longstanding challenges.
Wanjigi says Kenya had made significant progress in areas such as education and healthcare since independence but had failed to resolve the fundamental problem of poverty.
He invoked the legacy of Kenya’s first President, Jomo Kenyatta, saying the country’s leadership at independence had correctly identified poverty, health and education as three major challenges facing the newly independent nation.
“I will remove poverty,” Wanjigi said when asked why he would be interested in becoming President, during an interview on Thee Alfa House YouTube channel.
“The whole goal of this is that there are three things that have eluded us since independence. When we got independence, Jomo Kenyatta was very good at anchoring three problems; poverty, health, and education. 63 years later, are we still not in those challenges?”
Wanjigi argued that tackling poverty would have a multiplier effect on other social challenges, saying improving the economic circumstances of Kenyans would in turn make it easier to address problems in healthcare and education.
“Mine is to remove poverty; because once you remove poverty, you remove all the others,” he said.
The businessman-cum-politician cited poverty figures which he said illustrate the scale of the problem facing the country more than six decades after independence.
According to Wanjigi, about 32 million Kenyans are classified as poor, with approximately 12 million experiencing multidimensional poverty linked to deficiencies in education and health.
He said the remaining poor population includes Kenyans facing food poverty and absolute poverty, putting the proportion of the population living in poverty at about 60 per cent.
“That is 60% of our population; six out of every 10 are called poor. What nation is that 63 years after independence?” he posed.
Wanjigi said Kenya’s persistent poverty could not simply be attributed to a lack of talent, education or hard work among its citizens.
He argued that Kenyans possess the human capital and social conditions required to build a prosperous economy, but lack sufficient access to capital remains a fundamental obstacle to economic transformation.
“There’s one basic reason why some nations are poor and others are not; capital,” Wanjigi said.
He questioned why Kenya continues to struggle economically despite having an educated and hardworking population and being relatively peaceful and united.
“Why are we such a struggling nation? Many of us have education, we have potential, we’re hardworking as Kenyans, we’re a united and peaceful nation – but what is this state that becomes something permanent to us that we are always listening to promises that we will come out of poverty but it doesn’t go away?” he posed.
Wanjigi has constantly positioned himself as an advocate for reforms to Kenya’s political and economic system, often criticising what he describes as a failure by successive governments to deliver meaningful economic change to ordinary citizens.
