5 interesting things you didn’t know about Kithure Kindiki

Up until 2011, very little was known about Professor Kithure Kindiki, a proficient and established lawyer who has represented clients both locally and internationally.

Defended DP Ruto at ICC

Kindiki first came into the public scene in 2011 when he represented the current deputy president William Ruto as one of his lawyers at the International Criminal Court (ICC) where he had, alongside President Uhuru Kenyatta, been charged for allegedly orchestrating the post-electoral violence in 2007 that killed hundreds of people.

The presence of Kindiki at the ICC projected his seamless political journey owing to the fame he earned from the case that was the talk of town and one that would be televised live.

Senate leadership

In 2013, Kindiki was expected to make his first political move and was to vie for Tharaka Nithi parliamentary seat but his bigger ambitions led him to vie for the senate position which he secured.

With Tharaka Nithi county being divided into two agricultural zones of Maara and Chuka-Igambang’ombe constituency and Tharaka constituency, Kindiki’s first successful shot at the senate was propelled by the well-positioned regional balancing that earned him favour.

Born on July 16, 1972, the second-term serving Tharaka Nithi senator was also until June 2020 the Senate Deputy Speaker and Former Senate Majority Leader.

He was dethroned from the position of majority leader by Murang’a governor Irungu Kang’ata after he failed to attend President Uhuru Kenyatta’s convened parliamentary group meeting for the senate.

Education

He completed his secondary School at Lenana School in 1994 and graduated in 1998 with a Law degree.

Kindiki received a scholarship to study for his Master of Law and PhD at the University of Pretoria after an exemplary performance when he was retained at the university as a graduate assistant.

At the University of Pretoria, Kindiki, in 2000, graduated with a Master of Laws (LLM) in International Human Rights Law and Democracy before he continued with his studies and in 2002, he graduated with a PhD in International Law at the same South African university.

Lecturer

The senator and lawyer later became a lecturer of law at the University of Nairobi in 2004 before he became the head of Department of Public Law & Senior Lecturer of International Law, University of Nairobi.

Writer

Kindiki is known for having published numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals and has acted as a consultant for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and other international and national organizations.

In 2008, the senator got an appointment to become the Secretary of Cohesion in the Justice Ministry, a position he resigned from after only serving for three months claiming there was no political goodwill to address the huge challenges facing the country including the resettlement of IDPs.

He went back to lecture at the University of Nairobi.

Kindiki is among a few leaders proposed to deputize William Ruto, the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) presidential flag bearer come August 9.

Since his ouster as the senate majority leader, Kindiki has been a serious critic of the government and often uses his social media accounts to keep the government he serves in check.

Speculations that he would be made Ruto’s running mate started after the second in command urged him to drop his Tharaka Nithi gubernatorial aspirations to help him in the national campaigns.