Is Lee Kinyanjui regaining his charm with Nakuru voters?

In the August 2022 elections, Nakuru rejected Governor Lee Kinyanjui by overwhelmingly voting him out despite his alleged development track record.

The man had dedicated his leadership towards restructuring hospitals, farming, roads, markets and a metropolitan city that even critics admitted was impactful, yet voters chose a different path.

While it was a normal political occurrence, his perceived development track record was overshadowed by the hustler wave that had excited the voters at the time.

Kinyanjui exited the stage in resignation of a man who understood that even builders sometimes misjudge the value of their stones.

Perhaps it was in something he did or did notdo. (YOU decide)

What followed was his period in the 'wilderness', but not of silence. Instead, he began (or continued- for ardent followers) releasing short poems, meditative essays and cryptic reflections on his social media pages on the state of the nation.

The pieces often stirred conversation with ‘fans’ trying to decipher them under his post and offered a contemplative counterweight to the country’s noisy political theatre, with him observing where the conversation would presumably end.

Yet the verse remains true that rejection is a pause, not finality.

Then came the 2024 national maandamano, a national shift that rattled the elite and softened political certainties. Amid the government reshuffle that followed, Kinyanjui resurfaced — appointed Cabinet Secretary for the Ministry of Investments, Trade, and Industry.

It was a technocratic homecoming, almost poetic in its symmetry. The man once dismissed by his own county was now handed one of the country’s most strategic dockets.

The stone had not been discarded after all; it had simply been waiting for a structure that needed it.

And in an ironic twist, Nakuru- the county that voted him out- now receives him with warmth and cheer from the crowds. Online and in pockets of meetings many openly confess their admiration for him.

His visits have become a theatre of re-evaluation: a reminder that the present can illuminate the past in ways elections cannot.

Kinyanjui's journey is less a morality play of fate and more a case study in enduring political change. It demonstrates how voters' opinions evolve, how leaders achieve reinvention, and, crucially, how consistency ultimately triumphs over fleeting setbacks.

The biblical analogy works, not because he is irreplaceable, but because his story reflects a pattern: the underdog's re-emergence. This occurs when the nation rejects political clamor and shifts its focus back to recognizing the essential reliability of capable, measured governance.

The builders are the people and sometimes, the cornerstone they discard returns not in triumph, but in quiet, deliberate relevance.