The thicker armor on the wrists are actually Ki cannons that are activated at will. They will extend over the hand and past that a couple inches, allowing Kenji to ampifly Ki blasts beyond usual. The downside to this is that it takes a couple seconds to activate/deactivate these, leaving the hand unoccupiedfor that span of time. Also, they can't be used if the hand is holding something.
*Goes to protect mind again* Kaze is actually going to have a Ki Summon thing that does something like that, but looks like one of the Arm busters from the Megaman series.