Ruto is hawking the Kalenjin

That William Samoei Kipchirchir arap Ruto is a businessman with few equals is not a secret. The former student of the immortal Kapsabet Boys High School has a nose for the shilling that is unmatched by his peers and agemates. Not many of his contemporaries have seen a million shillings, except in writing, and are unlikely to see it in their lifetime. Likewise, his rise in politics was undoubtedly as meteoric as it was highly unexpected. The former meek Christian Union (CU) and North Rift Evangelistic Team (NORET) official has confounded both friend and foe. Those who know Mr. Ruto well attest to a calculating and ambitious man, sometimes the ambition leading to serious fall-outs reminiscent of betrayals and not-entirely-over-the-table decisions. It is therefore not a wonder that he fell out of favour (or is it the other way round!) with the moneyed blue-eyed boys of the Moi Statehouse - Cyrus Jirongo and Gideon Moi. What led to their fall-outs and the fact that Mr Ruto has a near sneerish gaze at them whenever he comes face to face with them is both mysterious and tempting. But that is not the hypothesis of the present thesis.

Upon the retirement of the all-domineering Senior citizen Moi, the Kalenjin Moi Statehouse squatters were orphaned. With trepidation they lived each day, not knowing when the 'incorrigible' Kiraitu Murungi-led purge of the former official thieves could come knocking on their now porous doors. For with the departure of Mr. Moi, the deepest secrets of his side-kicks, including Mr. Ruto, were filtering through. It was then that the Kalenjin were cajoled and coerced into a cocoon of fear and scouting for a protector became inevitable. Admittedly, the first goof of the nuptial Kibaki Statehouse was a direct affront on the senior Moi who was fast gaining world-wide acclaim and local sympathies for having ceded power peacefully contrary to beliefs by the doomsayers. Nonetheless, Mr. Moi was making amends with the lynch-pins in the Kibaki Statehouse and as it became increasingly clear that he was safe, his former army of tainted poodles were running scared. Mr Ruto emerged as a noisy champion of Kalenjin 'rights to live in Kenya' and this elevated the former humble AIC-adherent to pop-status overnight. That emergence of Ruto came, perhaps by happenstance rather than design, with the emergence of the immensely popular vernacular radio station, Kass FM. Matters were to be God-sent when, unprovoked, some thinkers in the Kibaki Statehouse and particularly at the Information ministry imposed an illegitimate, if entirely unwarranted, attempt to gag the station. When Mr. Sang of Kass FM was thrown into a police cell, Ruto rallied the Kalenjin people to a free advertisement and instant elevation, of both Kass FM and Sang on the one hand and Ruto himself and a number of opposition MPs on the other, to glorified protectors of the Kalenjin against collective persecution by the Kibaki puritanists and Kalenjin-hate machine. It was therefore natural and a very logical consequence when Mr. Ruto decided to throw in the towel and offer himself as a presidential candidate in the crowded, if star-studded, ODM-Kenya. This came hot on the heels of Mr. Ruto having led his politically conscious constituency of Eldoret North to provide the highest count of 'NO' or Orange support against the mutilated and doctored constitution. Even when he was crowned as a Kalenjin elder, he still enjoyed near-hysterical support. The rest, as they say, is history.

After releasing his blue-print which was duped "A Kenya for all Kenyans", Ruto was hailed as a serious contender for Statehouse and not merely one escorting others to the gate. Although his vision was lacking in intellectual input and was massively silent on cardinal pillars of development for the 21st century and beyond (health, science and technology and anti-corruption), it was an eye-opener. That Kenya suffers political plagiarism is not unique. Many people simply take blue-prints and cover the original author's name with the sorry mistake that they forget to replace other salient items of identity. Nonetheless, Ruto promised a fair distribution of wealth, although the vision was silent on wealth creation. You cannot divide ugali equally unless you have made it! One could as well say that Raila's sterling and Hollywood-style launch was a stark revision of the preceding launch episodes. That of course is not to be taken at face-value because one may as well wish to ask why Joseph Nyaga decided to offer a comical display while he launched his with the laughable rider "I'm more educated than all the others" which only served to underline the below-par delivery of service that awaits Kenyans from President Joe Nyaga. It will be safe to imagine that Ruto evolved a highly unjustified ideation that he was as good as the 'god of the Kalenjin' with the launch. This possibly meant that he regarded the Kalenjin vote as his to lose. Suffice it to say that the Kenyan media treated the launch unjustly, offering him just but a page five three-paragraph coverage for all the evening's worth. Well that is an issue for the 'members of the fourth estate'. Notably, the Kenya Times, which Mr. Ruto is fighting a court case to take it away from Kanu members, gave him a front-page coverage. Another day we will revisit the claim that Mr. Ruto has vandalised the printing press in a bid to steal the newspaper.

Concomitant with Ruto's release of his vision and entry into the real-politik arena was a claim by the diminutive and highly experienced Kiprono Nicholas Kipyator arap Biwott's claim of Kanu. Derisively of course, Ruto et al dismissed Mr. Biwott and failed to notice the invisible hand of the senior Moi in the machinations. Soon it was to dawn on Ruto that, like Mr. Kenyatta, all of Moi's students cannot claim to graduate themselves unless the grand-master offers the green-light. He has woken up to realise in the last few weeks that he is currently party-less because Mr. Kenyatta has chickened out of the ODM-K juggernaut with the instruments of Kanu. Mr. Ruto, is therefore, in ODM-K as an individual, virtually party-less and with no bargaining chip. Although he took for granted certain undercurrents of the old Kalenjin suspicions, Ruto was to rue his wasted opportunities when the more experienced Henry Kosgey decided to openly back Raila and therefore drew a clear boundary between the ambiguity with which Mr. Ruto was moving around his politics and his resolute determination not to allow the Nandi to be 'held by the nose' for another 24 years. It is instructive that there is no love lost between Ruto and Kosgey, indeed almost any other Kalenjin leader who doesn't seem to grovel at Ruto's feet. Again things were not helped by Ruto's penchant of 'pursuing a snake to its hole' by stirring the hornet's nest each time he seemed to dismiss the senior Moi.

That some people have issues to grind with Mr. Moi because of his overbearing nature in politics is not news. However, the Kalenjin peoples' magnanimity should not be underestimated. In like manner, Ruto's tendency was spiralling fast towards the big-man syndrome and he was developing enemies among the elite in the Kalenjin community while accumulating a category of followers that are known for insults and lack of respect. This explains why he has reached where he is. At almost the same time, Mr. Ruto awoke to rude realities that the Nandi were pulling in tandem with Kosgey towards Raila, the Keiyo seem stagnant with Biwott while the Tugen are mark-timing with the cultic Moi family. These are not helped by the fact that some enigmatic Kipsigis leaders like his former schoolmate Nick Salat (who has stuck with his bakule Gideon, and Biwott) and the ebullient Kipkalya arap Kones (who, together with his Bakule Franklin Bett, are gravitating towards Raila Odinga in the ODM-K fallout) dropped Ruto's candidature like a hot potato! Consequently, Ruto has been left with a skeleton of hangers-on who have more fights on their own hands. Add these to the dilemma of a man with no secretariat for his presidential campaigns and you have a president indeed (tongue-in-cheek)!

It is important to note that the choice of an ODM-K candidate is not without pitfalls and the dangers of irreparable splits. Consensus is seemingly the most viable means at arriving at a winner. However, consensus should be guided on the principle that the most popular candidate be chosen. As matters stand in the fluid politics of Kenya, it would seem too soon to pick a candidate. One only needs to see the sharp fall of Kalonzo Musyoka from the overwhelming candidate of choice a few months ago to an also-run these days. Raila started off with a consistent sub-20% approval, he has risen now to become the only logical consensus candidate. What happens if the wave changes against him later? Raila is the man of the moment and to ask him to step down in favour of anybody else is laughable. That the Kalenjin are yearning for a consensus is no secret. That they want to support a decision that involves the winner, is without doubt, unmistakeable. It would seem natural, therefore, that our leaders need a close, even parasitic relationship with the people. For to ask Raila to step down when the gods are smiling at him is to ask the Kalenjin people to throw their caution to the wind. That is not practical and Ruto's think-thank seems to have gone on holiday the moment it appeared that he had everyone of us under wraps. 'Ma ki esee beep suuswo', the wind is blowing away that confidence with the consequence that the nakedness of the leaders are being revealed for all and sundry to see!

When Mr. Ruto, therefore, decided to pay a highly unexpected and unprovoked, if poorly thought out, tour to Nyanza MPs few of his supporters expected him to propose the ridiculous things that he did. Proposing to Mr. Odinga that they step down 'for the sake of a winning formula', Ruto got a taste of his medicine when the Nyanza entourage told him to his face to forget it. It is important that hot on the heels of this, Kass FM's fans took an unscientific but probable poll which showed that 74% of the Kalenjin would like to vote for Raila against 14% and 12% for Kalonzo and Mudavadi, respectively. The stark contrast between Mr. Ruto's alleged winning formula and the Kalenjin peoples' aspirations showed a man living on planet Mars. This is the consequence of pride and the schemes of a nakedly greedy man who lacks respect for the collective hope vested on him by the Kalenjin people. Left holding a dead baby in his hands, Ruto has refused to take counsel and retreat to seek the Kalenjin peoples' direction for the future. As I pen this argument, it is emerging that Mr. Ruto was yesterday steeped in yet another controversial effort to woo Mr. Musyoka to step down for Mudavadi. He could as well be heading to Kalonzo with the false believe that he will appear as a champion of sacrifice. What a fallacy! That Mr. Ruto was a pedestrian in the political terrain is now an open secret. That he is running from hotel to hotel hawking the Kalenjin vote and support is ridiculous and borders on the absurd. If Ruto does believe in Mr. Odinga stepping down, why didn't he contemplate asking him to step down and support the Ruto campaign? Why has Mr. Ruto not seen it wise to ask the others to step down for Raila, the overwhelmingly popular candidate at the moment? Is he serving his narrow, business-like interests with this new move or is he a Jeremiah for the Kalenjin?

It would now appear that Ruto is interested in deal-making as a means to nominating the ODM-K flag-bearer to the chagrin of Mr. Odinga and all democrats in the ODM-K. Mr. Odinga, like many ODM-K followers, believes in holding primaries to sort out the candidacy. It is important to note that the decision to back boardroom selections are reminiscent of all of Mr. Moi's 'speak with one voice' mantra. Question is, is Mr. Ruto hawking the Kalenjin for their good or for his good? Who mandated Ruto to 'do a deal' with the less popular candidates when he has not asked the Kalenjin people for the direction? The last time Ruto held a massive rally, it was at Kapkatet. At that meeting, just like on Kass FM, he had sworn to the point of telling off Mr. Moi that he was not going to give up the race. Why is he betraying the collective hope and aspirations of the Kalenjin? Why is he backing a minority candidate, when all indicators are that the Kalenjin 'koyameechin botaan keelog' to support Mr. Odinga's viable-ever bid for Statehouse. Is Mr. Ruto a mere pedestrian who wanted to use us to up his stakes in a game we least understood? Does anybody care to tell him to learn a culture of discussion and feedback so that people know why and where he is going? Or has he fallen to the old dismissive antics of 'leen nee noo?' Ko koaldeech arap Ruto, period!

Mr. Kenyatta's Gamble with the Kalenjin Lives

Ever since Mr. Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta stepped up to inherit his late father’s flywhisk and accept the leadership challenge of Kenya’s independence party (Kanu), his life changed. Whether it was for the better or not seems increasingly irrelevant to his followers. On the other hand, Mzee Daniel Kapkorios Toroitich arap Moi has an uncanny way of surprising and intimidating his political students. All the senior politicians in Kenya safe for Mr Odinga, perhaps, have had some form of tutelage under the former herdsboy from Sacho. Having walked the Kenyan political landscape from 1955 when he joined the Legco at the behest of some AIC-leaning Nandi elders (after the disappointment with Legislators Ole Tameno and arap Chemalan), Mzee Moi has not left anything to chance. Welding into a big-man wielding a big rungu and walking with massive footsteps, the giant figure has helped imbue his erstwhile enemies with awe and admiration which cowed them to submission. If any of us has had the privilege of shaking Mzee Moi’s massive hand, then you bear witness to the grip and length of his fingers that almost tickle you! Matters are not helped by myths and talk that his red eyes and apparently blank stare seem to perform some invisible laser-type surgery on the heart and mind of whoever it falls on. The old man is an Orkoiyot in some sense.

It is not without reason therefore, that Mr. Kenyatta was brow-beaten back to Mzee Moi’s thought process and management style of Kanu. That is why the left-handed and youthful politician from Central Kenya decided to ditch the Raila-led rollercoaster that has become ODM-K. I wasn’t surprised, then, when this morning I read that Mr. Kenyatta skipped the presentation of nomination documents to the ODM-K secretariat. What this means is that, without effort, Mzee Moi drew a spanner in the works of ODM-K and threw the juggernaut into a directionless spin unless the leaders find a rhythm fast enough and intercept the self-destruction that is sure to provoke a nyama choma parley between Mzee Moi, Mzee Moody and possibly Mzee Mwai. This land of M wazees!

So much for the prelude, what does Mr. Kenyatta’s failure to submit his papers mean for the Kanu members and especially the Kalenjin community who form the bedrock of the party’s following? Does this mean that Mr. Kenyatta will run for President in what is Mzee Moi’s unpolluted Kanu? Does unpolluted Kanu have a conspiracy to gift Mzee Kibaki a second term and a guarantee for Mr. Kenyatta to succeed him after that? Does Mzee Moi intend to reward Mzee Kibaki for something that you and I don’t know? More so in the light of the fact there was no love lost between the two immediately after the latter’s electoral victory. It is a poorly guarded secret that in Mzee Moi’s long-term strategy, he wants one member of his wealthy clan as a tenant of house on the hill. How he intends to let his anointed clansman take the grand march to Statehouse, however, is something he keeps tightly rolled up in his sleeves.

Should the Kalenjin ditch Kanu and embrace ODM-K as individual members? To put it in another way, should the Kalenjin hang on the coat-tails of Mr. Kenyatta and grovel at the feet of the retired President and former student of Kapsabet High School? Does the pull of Mr. Ruto on the one hand, Mr. Kenyatta on the other and the self-styled Total Man on the other leave the Kalenjin as a fragmented community with little consequence in Kenya’s electoral process? For obvious reasons, a dismembered Kalenjin vote is a gift for Mzee Kibaki’s second election victory. What this victory means for Mzee Moi is not easy for me to figure out. However, let’s remember that Mr. Kenyatta’s backyard of Central Province is safely perched in another party and not Kanu. What Mr. Kenyatta is gambling on is Mzee Moi’s ‘delivery’ of the Rift-Valley (read Kalenjin) vote. Should the Kalenjin allow an ‘outsider’ with little value to add to our total vote to dictate how and where we cast our vote? Should we allow Mr. Kenyatta to herd us to an ineffectual Kanu candidacy, divide the opposition, gift Mzee Kibaki his final term in Statehouse and later desert us to embrace and lead the ‘forgiving’ and ‘grateful’ birds of his feathers (Central Kenya people) to Statehouse? Mundu wa nyumba, remember. These are hard questions to ponder. While it may be easy to dismiss Mzee Moi’s influence among the youth, two things struck me the other day. One is the apparent complacency on the part of a large part of the Kalenjin youth which has left a good number without either or both an ID and a voters’ card! Two is the seemingly lethargic attitude of the voters. Call it voter-fatigue or apathy, which means quite a number of the young fellows are disillusioned and are likely not to care about voting at all. How will these two aspects impact on the current regime’s stay in power? What does this mean for the Kalenjin on 01 Jan 2008?

Little to expect from Biwott-Ruto meet

While it is sensible to applaud the apparent melt-down of the wall that divides the Kalenjin leaders (Ruto vs Biwott), one cannot help but inquire into the genesis of their feud in the first place. It is no secret that William Ruto has no time for the old school of Biwott-Moi and to some extent and even other Kalenjin or if you like Nandi leaders like Kosgey and Kirwa and that is not without reason. On the other hand, the old-timers believe that they are not done with the Kalenjin and none is ready to give up wagging the big rungu. Ruto's impatience is informed by the urgency of the new-blood to take over leadership. This conflict provokes two questions that beg for answers. Forgive the simplicity of these questions, but they may hold the key to unravelling the reasons behind the bad blood between Ruto on the one hand and the old folk on the other.

Question number one: Are their differences ideological or are they based on mere supremacy and turf conflicts. Were Ruto not enigmatically a contender for the presidency (whether he goes far or not is neither here nor there), could the opportunity have offered itself for one of the old players to mortgage the Kalenjin community to the incumbent government ,for much less selfish interests like state favours? Indeed, allow me to entertain a fanciful thought: does Ruto's apparent grip on the Rift Valley vote (seemingly without the Nandi, Keiyo and Tugen blocs) bode good or bad for the community's collective future?

Question number two: Whereas Biwott's group and Ruto's group are dancing towards each other, are the main protagonists (read Ruto and Biwott) really party to this gesture or have the MPs merely realised that the thunder was stolen from Ruto's schemes (and the wind taken from his sails) when the Nandi, together with Kosgey, made a rather brave about-turn the other day at Kapsabet and openly backed the Raila campaign? Are they waking up, or to put it mildly, are they privy to more than we know? Consequently, if the protagonists are hurrying to close ranks, what does this mean for the ODM-K election machine. Please understand this against the background that Mr. Biwott, the self-proclaimed Total Man, (a) has no time for Mr Kenyatta and (b) Mr Kenyatta's foiled scheme to pull Kanu out of the ODM-K honeymoon seems to play right into Mr. Biwott's large play-game. How would this help Ruto et al, since they seemed to have saved the ODM-K juggernaut from collapse by outwitting Mr. Kenyatta?

I would also like to ask a third question while being consciously informed of the Kalenjin philosophy. If these two factions are closing ranks, who is fooling who? Ng'o ne nyoonei tuiyeet ak ng'oomkong'natet? Who is willing to play second fiddle to another? Will Biwott climb down from his mogoiyweet for Ruto and conversely, will Ruto climb down from his Mt. Ararat and yield space to Biwott? While I could be dismissed as over-interpreting a simple gesture, please permit me to make a not-too-wise claim: That those alignments have largely been driven by financial considerations and nothing less. Each of the perceived camp leader is bankrolling MPs allied to them. Could it be that the coffers are dry(ing)? Maybe not, but the meetings are likely to take the Kalenjin voter for a ride...albeit closer to a very powerful voting machine. However, don't forget that the MPs have hitherto been benefiting from this division and mistrust of the main contestants in the feud- so long as camps were being sustained with heavy monetary consequences.

Finally, without giving away a hint of being a pessimist (chi ne ki ko bar soeet ko ang' kooro tany ne tuui ko mweei) I would caution us "tomo ke eesei ama tien Koilegei". It will not disappoint me if all these will add up to nothing more than another red herring!

Comments on Kass FM on 12 Jun 2007

Arap Sang,

I have wanted to resist commenting on politics but I can't help interpreting Uhuru. Listen to him on Kass FM "Je, sisi watu wa Kanu tulipata 40% in ODM-K?" People roared back "Nooooooo". In other words, he was saying, "you sent us to represent all of you in ODM-K but we FAILED to press for our share as Kanu". He was saying, "we failed to lead you in ODM-K, we're losers and please damp us from leading you". Of course the cheerleaders didn't understand the intricate message, what a pity! Uhuru's Central Province has rejected Kanu in toto and embraced the flower party (Narc-Kenya). If Uhuru wants Kanu to field candidates in Kenya, which part of Kenya is likely to/ not to have Kanu candidates? Does he intend to fool anybody that he will have anything that will help to bring in Kanu MPs from Central Province? No, he is playing a bad gamble and dirty ball with our people and he should be told so without mincing words. As an outsider and an isolated man in his own backyard, he has one sad but inevitable, albeit gentlemanly business to do: Uhuru SHOULD seriously consider quitting Kanu NOW before the political sun sets for him, join one of his own region's parties and leave Kanu to its 'owners', the people of Kenya that believe Kanu has only one future and that is THE future WITHIN ODM-K.

Just imagine, what if ODM-K also fields candidates for MP and councillors? Consider Hon. William Ruto for example (he who read the resolutions!) running as a Kanu candidate against one from the more organised and vibrant ODM-K in his Eldoret North constituency. What a God -(nay, Uhuru Kenyatta)-given opportunity to supplant those problem people for the Kibaki administration! Uhuru wants to lose his seat while clinging to Kanu as an excuse so that he can safe face, he has written his own political orbituary but we fail to see it! Uhuru is on a mission to divide ODM-K, period! That division will allow the other parties, including Narc-K, to slip past and return to government. Electing a president in ODM-K, with no party MPs is an exercise in futility and a sure recipe for chaos, as is currently the case in the government of national disunity. Kanu should remain a corporate member of ODM-K and forget fielding own candidates. Yes, it can have its own candidates to square it out with LDP at the nomination stage in order to get an ODM-K candidate. Once a candidate is picked, that should be the end of the story. Once an ODM-K candidate is in place, there should be neither Kanu nor LDP but ODM-K.

By an act of guile and wizzardry, is Uhuru serving the flower party by dividing the opposition in order to gift Kibaki a second chance and therefore get a reason for the people of Central to 'forgive', embrace and elect him in 2012 as 'mundo wa nyumba'? I'm convinced Uhuru's indecisive leadership of Kanu has lost direction and doomed the old-lady to political irrelevance. Fielding candidates as Kanu will make it easy for them to lose. Don't forget that Kanu was, for a good part of the last 40-plus years, the face of misrule, oppression and the aborted Kenyan dream. Nobody would hesitate to pin the econo-political misdeeds of the past on Kanu. In ODM-K, Kanu has a chance of burying its ugly past of persecutions, indeed it bequeaths that ugly past to the relics of the old school. In that camp is Biwot and Moi, who would easily be dismissed as having hang-overs of power. But Uhuru wants us to cross the floor and compete with Biwot and Moi for infamy.

I don't support any moves to take our people out of ODM-K. Uhuru is alone and lonely in ODM-K, and he can recede to his fold and live with birds of his feathers. Otherwise as they said in ancient Egypt, Ma yaasei kimageet baan bo beet buch!

Comments of Kass FM on 08 June 2007 on Contestants

Arap Sang,
If somebody has a job already and he can provide solutions to society in his current position, has he done enough to help the community? I think the problem is with our society, how we perceive leadership etc. Don't we see an unclear boundary between the definition of politicians and leaders? Because if the distinction were made, it would be clear that arap Sang is a leader right where he is and doesn't need to be a politician! Again, the society has a wrong rank of priorities. It seems that people think that when you succeed in one aspect they want you to be promoted to the next level, which to them is politics. Politics should not be the top job because it is dirty. The sad thing in our land these days is that we are bringing professors, businessmen, teachers, etc to contest politics. Because of their previous professions, some of us don't know how to deal with the abusive language that is in politics. In a short time they become irrelevant, and they cannot fit back into their former professions.

I wonder why some people who have had opportunities to for example provide scholarships to our people to study abroad only made it possible for their brothers and sisters. They didn't provide opportunities for the rest of society. One wonders why such people should seek elective office. Surely they didn't need to be MPs to help their siblings, certainly not to help the larger society!

Finally, it could also be that once people are elected they close out everybody else because they want to be the only 'jogoo of the village'. An elected leader should share responsibility with others, we need to be partners in development.

"Kimuuchingei chobosta".

Kongoi,

Comments of Kass FM on 07 June 2007 on Mungiki

Arap Sang,
Kongoi agobo ng'alaletab rani. I have always had two thoughts about Mungiki: 1. It seems like a hit-squad which was hired to do some dirty job which became unnecessary after this regime won. However, the principals did not honour their part of the bargain. Otherwise, don't you see that they've declared war on specific people (Michuki and Kibaki)? Why are they killing in Murang'a and Nyeri? It's a declaration of war on the government. Ariire ale angu tos kiyookto asikariik chebo guutit koba koboryo ak acherichoto!

Secondly, Mungiki is a future rebel movement which will be used by those who are now in government to terrorise us after they lose the next election. That is why there is no political will to eliminate this menace. I'm embarrassed daily by questions of death in Central Kenya and Nairobi. They're developing confidence and will definitely overrun any other community. Alenjini bichotok "oamgei kwariin".

When I see this menace, I imagine that Kenya needs a benevolent dictator to restore order. By the way does the debacle of Kalonzo's trip to South Rift mean that he has lost support? "Ma kioone saanik maat".

Finally, arap Sang remember to swallow Dawanol after the programme so as to prevent yourself from getting headache from ng'alalet! Sere