Kibaki: the guile old political hand and Kenyans love for raucous politicians

I would like to study under Emilio Mwai Kibaki. His persona is a study in contrasts between the know-all, want-to-know-all of Daniel Kapkorios Toroitich arap Moi and the control-freaks in politics as well as his 'apparent' hands-off, legs-off BUT eyes-on approach. He is probably a suave politician with little colour, or just an opportunist who saunters along ignored. A reputed economist with Alma mater like Makerere and the world renowned London School of Economics, Kibaki does not come along as 'visibly' intelligent as his contemporaries. Yet his stealth nature belies a politically deft personality and a political animal unbeknown to Kenyans. One should excuse Kenyans who are acclimatised to the noises from the Professor of politics and many of his raucous students who mistake vibe for substance. Kibaki is silence and scheming molded into a deadly roll. Here is a politician you would think is not in charge, when all he does is to keep his hands free of soil by delegating.

He had good lessons in management. And he uses them effectively.

But wait.


I dare say Kibaki learnt foul language from Kenyatta High School and graduated in political chicanery from the famous Moi University. When you hear 'kupafu', 'mavi ya kuku' and 'wajinga', you know that Jomo Kenyatta inculcated eternal virtues in the soft matter of the gray material somewhere in the locus between Mwai Kibaki's ears. Mr Kibaki studied Jomo long enough to acquire some traits. Those lessons were learnt in the height of the Jaramogi-Kenyatta adrenaline wars. Kibaki witnessed it all. And he saw how Jaramogi's adrenaline glands dried long before Jomo's. Kibaki knows what personalities like Jaramogi want and how they should be neutralised.

Take stock. Jaramogi agitated for pluralism, but was successfully tagged a communist and ostracised from the powerful Western bloc. Had he succeeded in penetrating the West, Jomo's game plan would have ended. He remained tethered to revolutionary ideals and political activism, while the elite grabbed land and national assets. He was being sidelined. Tom Mboya, his checkmate, was propped up by the Kenyatta regime. Where Jaramogi 'sponsored' Dr Joseph Misoi and Moses Keino's friends to study in the Eastern European 'red states', Tom Mboya was given tons of opportunities to transform Luo Nyanza into an academic powerhouse using American scholarships.

Tom Mboya's, and not Jaramogi's efforts, bore the one important fruit of a diaspora Luo: President Barack Obama of the USA.

Let us say, for history's sake, that Raila Odinga, hewn from the same rock as Jaramogi, went to school in Eastern Germany. Magdeburg is located in what was communist Germany. We shall return to Raila Odinga a little bit later.

Kibaki witnessed the agitation of Jaramogi's KPU, given token consolation by former Mau Mau activists who were edged out of the 'eating' spree in Mutongoria's State House. Bildad Kaggia, disenchanted by the eating clique, broke ranks with the Mundu wa Nyumba, joined hands with Jaramogi and he was ostracised too. He died in the political cold on March 7, 2005. Although he spent time with Kenyatta as part of the 'Kapenguria Six', Kaggia was never regarded a Kenyatta insider. If Kenyatta needed to immortalise the struggle against colonialism, he had the person of Bildad Kaggia. He was never to do it.

What shall we say about Jaramogi. A true patriot who gave up claim to the Premiership with his 'no Kenyatta no freedom', a push that led to the release of Jomo and eventual attainment of Uhuru. Jaramogi had sacrificed personal ambition where KADU was ready to do business with the Mzungu. Consider that KADU's position was less patriotic, they did not appreciate the symbolism of a free Jomo Kenyatta. Mr Ngala and Moi wanted to literally move on with Kenya under KADU. Jaramogi said 'no Jomo no Uhuru'. Jaramogi's Kanu won the day. He was made Veep in Kenyatta's government, a position he was to give up sooner with his agitation for 'political space'.

Kibaki took notes during all these times. He was a fresh man in government, plucked from Makerere to head the Finance Ministry. He saw how all the dissenters were handled, including the slaughter of Kisumu which Kenyatta is on tape with those K$%& ya mama yako as he said it to Jaramogi.

Mr Moi tried to rehabilitate Jaramogi in the 1980s, but it was too late. Then in the 1990s, just before he died, Jaramogi was to praise Moi thus: Moi is a giraffe who sees far. He died before he could be allowed to rule Kenya even for a single day. It was significant that Jaramogi said these after visiting the one ugly symbol of Moi plunder of national resources: The Turkwel Gorge Electro Project. What inspired Jaramogi to say that? Nobody knows.

Kibaki witnessed the Jaramogi 'engineering of government', including bringing Kibaki from Makerere to head the nascent Finance ministry. He witnessed the cold-blooded use of Tom Mboya to neuter Jaramogi and the eventual liquidation of Tom Mboya. He was here, when in 1982 Kenya was transformed from a nominal multiparty society to a legal single-party entity. He witnessed that like nobody else. For it was Veep Mwai Kibaki who moved the motion amending the constitution introducing the single-party dictatorship in Kenya.

Mwai Kibaki witnessed the agitation by Charles Rubia, Paul Muite, Kenneth Matiba, Raila Odinga, Martin Shikuku and Ahmed Bahmazir for the introduction of multi-party democracy. He was to say that cutting down Kanu (baba na mama) was like trying to cut down the hallowed Mugumo tree using a razor blade. How true that has become so far!

Let us look at Moi University. The professor of politics comes along as affable, even harmless. Moi is a pious Sunday-school Christian who must be bothered by the current schism in his AIC church. He was raised by missionaries who taught to pray for anything, not least before eating any food. Child-making was instructively included in the 'pray-before' menu. He comes along as humble, a little sleepy and HUGE. His gait and strides baffle even the most athletic of all ministers and government officials. His love for vegetables, bitter herbs and boiled maize is legendary. And he is generous. This is one lesson Kibaki did not want to learn from professor baba Gideon.

Kibaki witnessed how Moi used Robert Ouko to neutralise Jaramogi, he saw how Moi used some Central Kenya political minions to haunt Charles Mukane Njonjo, he of the Msaliti infamy, into political oblivion. Kibaki witnessed how Moi rehabilitated a grateful Njonjo back to the Kanu fold.

Mr Kibaki has lived long enough to count the garbage in Mr Jomo Kenyatta's garbage and Mr Moi's refuse land-fill.

Mwai Kibaki saw how the 'Seven Bearded Sisters' (sic) were dispensed with. He watched as the drama unfolded surrounding JM Kariuki with his famous 'country of ten millionaires' and 'ten million beggars'. He developed a cold-blooded attitude and acquired those traits.

They have served him well. So far, where Moi thought of him as a drunkard with no clue on governance, Mr Kibaki has succeeded beyond the professor's instructions. If Jomo Kenyatta woke up today, he would be happy and perplexed in equal measure. Mr Kibaki has been an excellent student and an equally excellent professor. Kibaki University, a cocktail of Kenyatta High School, Moi University and his own congenital power has more potent lessons for the keen student. Kibaki University is a melting pot of manipulation, stealthy and incognito operation and a perfected 'use-and-dump' study cases.

Trust him at your own peril. Under-estimate him to your own disadvantage.

Ask Raila Odinga. If you think that Kibaki did not like the Kenyatta-Jaramogi fall-out, think twice. If you comfort yourself with the delusion that Bildad Kaggia was unlucky with Kibaki, stop and think again. As effective as Kenyatta executed a machination, which must rightly traced into the older Jomo's State House, and succeeded in isolating Jaramogi and Kaggia together all their surrogates, Kibaki is cool and more effective. And to him everybody is dispensable, so ruthlessly so that you need to ask the sweaty-armpit Christopher Murungaru. Chris thought he was entitled to take commissions on behalf of government operatives. He was entitled to act as a go-between because he shared Nyeri with Kibaki. No Chris. He was to sweat away on his own, and now he feels no more heat because he is in the cold, and he sweats nonetheless! Nobody talks about the fire-fighting he did for the boss, it is forgotten and it is 'mavi ya kuku'. At least Chris is a Vet, and he knows the worth of livestock droppings.

Raila Odinga pronounced the all-important 'Kibaki Tosa' (sic), sealing the fate of an ambitious Kalonzo Musyoka and consigning Uhuru Kenyatta to the drivel of politics. Not yet Uhuru, you would say. Just about the same time, Mr Kibaki was involved in a ghastly road crash. Michael Wamalwa was hospitalised. The Captain and the Vice-Captain were bed-ridden and in London. Like a loyal team-member, Raila Odinga went out and sliced out Kenya into regional blocs. He assigned Kalonzo Musyoka, Najib Balala and Charity Ngilu the coverage of Lower Eastern and Coast Provinces. He diced out Central and parts of Nairobi to Martha Karua and Joseph Kamotho plus George Saitoti. He had Rift Valley covered poorly by Saitoti and a battery of other freelancers. He covered Nyanza (Kisii) and some Rift Valley regions. You might recall that his shirt was torn in Kisii while he and Kipruto Kirwa were stoned in NARC-hostile Marakwet as their Helicopter took off. Kenya was micromanaged and Kibaki's message was delivered. Narc took Kenya and there was to be a prime minister, the second since independence. The occupant was destined to be Raila Amolo Odinga.

That was a pipe dream. True to Machaevillean tactics, 'the Prince must kill the kingmakers'. Kibaki saliently engineered the first move to tame Raila. With Kiraitu Murungi taking on a visible 'shadow executive' power, Raila was denied the chairmanship of the all-important Parliamentary Select Committee on the Constitutional making process. Kiraitu, then minister in charge of constitutional affairs, subtly put in word to some loyal forces who voted for a Safina MP, another Kibaki-use-and-dump client, Mr Paul Kibugi Muite. That was stupefying for Jaramogi's son. While crisscrossing the country selling candidate Kibaki, Kiraitu was fighting for dear political life in Imenti among the Nchuri Ncheke. With Kibaki safely perched at SH, Kiraitu not only called the shots but was clipping Raila, the kingmaker, to size. The rest is water under the bridge.

But allow me to say that when it was ripe, Paul Kibugi Muite was dropped like an extra baggage and he remains a feeble gadfly to the system. Since he went to bed with them before, and played ball, he basically lacks the moral stand to criticise the government. Let me hasten to say that Muite's baby, the Kilifi draft was a whittle-down of the Bomas draft, from which Kiraitu, an erstwhile proponent for decongestion of powers from the powerful presidency turned around and opposed the 'two centres of power'. As the DP Spokesman, Kiraitu had presented the party position at Cannon house in which he supported the creation of the prime minister's post in the constitution. Need I say that shortly before Kiraitu gave the party position,  his party leader Mr Kibaki had given some opening remarks?

How things change.

Muite is in the 'no-use' dump-site. Along him is a heap including akina Murungaru. The list shall grow as we get along.

Having succeeded in driving Raila to foul mood, Kiraitu went ahead and sought to finish Moi. He famously said "We want Moi to retire to his Kabarak home and look after his goats and we will show him how a government should be run". Raila Odinga ganged up with some RV Kanu orphans who were nursing the resounding defeat of Uhuru Kenyatta, the RV candidate and Moi's anointed heir. Leave Moi alone. Kiraitu twisted his lips and backtracked. Anglo-Leasing was catching up faster. Mr Clean Murungi.

Add John Githongo to Kibaki's mound of 'no-more-use' dump-site. Add Mwiraria, and Joseph Munyao of DP. Add Kalembe Ndile, the hilarious and Raphael Tuju. Don't forget the first casualty, Dr Shem Ochuodho. Shem Ochuodho's case is a study in contradictions. Ochuodho is a computer wizard, a man trained in the intricate balance of zeroes and ones, which become what you are reading now. Even that 'logic' could not help him decipher Kibaki's machinations as he was used to hit Raila. Even after a try at revival in 2007, he remains rueful of his abuse by Kibaki. Mr Kibaki has no respect for education. Ndinkilii ni Mavi ya Kuku.

Ask Wanyiri Kihoro. A man whose whole life was dedicated to the improvement of Kenya Inc. He has lived unsung, even by his own Nyerite. What hero, Mavi ya Kuku.

Ask Moody Awori, the ever-smiling no-mood-is bad elder Jomba. He was plucked from the Raila wing of Narc, used in tokenism and abandoned like a chicken gizzard refuse by a slaughterer in Busia. Bless you Moody.

Ask Musikari Nazi Kombo and Wamalwa's first cousin Mukhisa Kituyi. Having fought and chopped off their tails, they were both dumped until Ford-Kenya said they wanted Kombo nominated. Yes he is nominated, but the man who is revered by some Bukusu and whispered to have one of his kids 'kept indoors until he has become yellow' due to lack of exposure to light, was defeated in an election (by ODM!). A Bukusu friend of mine said Kombo could never lose an election, that having sacrificed one of his blood to 'yellowness', he has become a Phoenix of some sort. Kombo, an alleged heir to the Dini ya Musambwa's Elijah Masinde's powers, is currently embroiled in a do-or-die battle for relevance in Ford-K. Either a young Eugene Wamalwa or the more experienced Moses Wetangula will tether him to Webuye. Mr Kibaki is involved, albeit through son Jimmy, in some Simamisha Kenya effort to sell Eugene as untainted. Problem is, he is being ferried in tainted caravans.

Why do I want to study under Mr Kibaki?

In 2007, he is widely believed to have lost the presidential election. Quietly, in the lead-up to that election, his system had engineered a split in the all-powerful juggernaut, the ODM-K of Raila-Kalonzo-Ruto-Mudavadi-Balala. Kalonzo went away with a part of ODM, and retained the -K tag. Dismissed as a paper tiger, Mr 8% and even derided as a loser, hence Kalooser, Kalonzo quickly jumped to join Kibaki as the Veep in the contested election. It will be remembered that while the whole country was raising questions regarding the validity of the poll, Kalonzo's point man, well aware of a pre-poll MOU was pushing his relative, the disgraced ECK Chairman Kivuitu, to release the final tally and announce the winner.

I sometimes think that Kalonzo has lost his place in the plot of things. This happens oftentimes when you agree to be used. You lose respect and you get a price tag. At the moment, Kalonzo is not the man to beat in the renamed cage-of-same-foxes PDM. He might as well find out later that even William Ruto ranks higher than him! Pay back time.

Now let us examine Kibaki. And let us focus on his actions around the time the country was burning in 2008.

I hold the opinion that Kofi Anan did not bring anything new to Kibaki. Just think it over. Before Anan began his work, Kibaki had formed a government with half the cabinet. With the exception of one or two, Kibaki's half cabinet remains intact to date. He was ready for a coalition government long before Anan traversed the collision to coalition. It is the ODM which CAME in to the coalition. Kibaki was already in plan B.

I need not say what happened to the NARA. For even though it was drafted by some of the best brains in ODM, not much was achieved. Even though the PM was designated the supervisor and of co-ordinator of government, for the better part of the two years he has only managed to visit projects in the company of ODM's half cabinet. The rest know their boss. Mr Muthaura remains more powerful than the PM. That again is not in doubt. The PM co-ordinates the ODM appointees he appended to NARA, the same guys he even cannot sack (let alone suspend!).

At the moment, the sleepy (almost sheepish) Kibaki is busy with something pivotal for his twilight term. He has roped in some disenchanted MPs from ODM led by Agriculture Minister William Ruto.

William Ruto needs no introduction. He is ambitious, he is wealthy and he has an ego the size of Kabiyet a hill in the heart of Nandi country. An eloquent man in his own right, Ruto shares many similarities with Raila Odinga. The most prominent trait is the one he is currently using. Mr Kibaki's Agikuyu community consider Mr Ruto as the sponsor of ethnic violence that rocked the Rift Valley. The press has succeeded in stupidly tagging Eldoret, Mr Ruto's constituency, as the epicentre of the violence.

Mr Ruto has found a friend in Uhuru Kenyatta, his pal of 2002. The two can go places, or so we hear. Some of the places they plan to go to is State House. The avenue is a merger of the Kalenjiin and Agikuyu in a clone called Progressive Democratic Movement, PDM. Progressive, what is progressive about Kiraitu Murungi, George Saitoti, Kalonzo Musyoka? What is democratic about this pseudo-movement without any motion? It is owned by Kibaki's money bags, the same people who view power as a right for some and undeserving of others.

What is progressive about Anglo-Leasing, Goldenberg, Maize scams, Laico, and all those other rapists of state corporations?

The PDM has a slogan, it is T-A-I, Tai. Tai in Kalenjin means loosely 'the future' or right side. So, what is the future? Or where is it?

I want to study under Mr Kibaki because he has been successful in hoodwinking anybody who cared to swallow the bait. Ask Simon Nyachae son of Chief Nyandusi. Mr Kibaki is intent on only one thing. Destroying the ODM party and scattering Mr Odinga's followers. Ruto will move with a parchment to PDM. With T-A-I, the Kalenjin will be made to believe that they own it, they are 'ahead of everybody', kimitei TAI! Once in PDM, with bridges burnt in ODM and no where to go back to, the mafia will square it out with Ruto. If you think I am kidding, ask Daniel arap Moi. He was not implicated in the deaths of any Kikuyu, not even JM, before 1982, at least not before the 'Change-the-constitution' campaign of 1975. Yet someone engineered a whole community's turn-around and Moi was abandoned until he retired from politics. Ruto, to the Agikuyu, is a mass-murderer, mention the name Kiambaa and the Mumbi will shrink. That is a stigma he cannot shed easily. Why not? Money may buy freedom from our legal system. However the court of public opinion is a damning indictment not redeemable with money.

Mr Kibaki is not running for president in 2012. Why does he need Ruto's support for? Raila Odninga was a necessary evil in 2002. Kibaki needed to surpass Kenneth Matiba, a man with little regard for Mwai, and become Kenya's CEO. Even though he knew that he was going to run in 2007, Kibaki chose to deal with Raila, a future asset, the way he did. What makes Ruto believe that Kibaki has gloves reserved for him?

Largely ignored and under-estimated, Kibaki remains Kenya's most enigmatic politician ever, perhaps more than Daniel Moi and Raila Odinga. He is a study in political contrasts, a man to watch all the time including in his bedroom. His strings are invisible, put tout. His game-plan is longer than we anticipated, and inexhaustible. His players are many, and dispensable. All his players, including his son Jimmy, can be dispensed with.

While Kenyans have been schooled in raucous politics and gotten used to 'pentecostal politicians', like Baba Moi, Tinga and now Ruto, Baba Jimmy subtly goes by ignored. That guy is a guile hand, largely underrated and yet more deadly than any politician who ever ruled Kenya.

I will not say anything about the countless Mungiki youth massacred in his watch. Though Agikuyu, he has reigned indifferent to them.

It is clear that what he learnt about how to nyorosha Jaramogi, Kaggia, JM, Seroney, Njonjo, and all those other luminaries of yesteryears, he successfully fused into a valuable 'use-and-dump-user-manual'. That "how-to" book is a guarded secret. The more we compile the list of his friends of yore, the more we see why he fights nobody's wars. A perfect man in the game of self-preservation he is. Is anybody caring to see it?

Kibaki has never been a reformer. When he was overtaken by events after the Anan negotiation, Martha Karua was there to do the talking and all the dirty work. Having checkmated the ODM fire-spitters, and secured Kibaki's place in State House, she was abandoned. Noisily she quit government, but as she realised later Kibaki brought in her party's Njeru Githae na kazi ikaendelea.

When Kibaki ceded ground to have the constitutional review process completed, he wanted to ensure that something he swore never to have in the Katiba was banished. In 2007, Kibaki said Majimbo was retrogressive and vowed to oppose it. In order not to be seen as the one fronting it, Mr Ruto and Uhuru Kenyatta teamed up at Naivasha recently and quietly but surely immortalised Kenya's move to an imperial presidency and a dilution of Majimbo or federalism an aspect so dear to the Rift Valley constituency. In a recent poll, Kass FM polled 96% of the Kalenjiin listeners favouring Majimbo in the constitution as opposed to a mere 4% who said they didn't care. Kibaki found a foot soldier in Mr Ruto who not only entrenched a powerful presidency, contrary to the motivations for a constitutional review in the first place, but helped removed and consign to the dump-site the concept of Majimbo.

In a frothy rejoinder to this development, an eloquent Chebusiit Marindany Laboso, a diaspora Rift Valleyan had this to say:


The elimination of the regional tier WILL DENY the small and weak counties an essential forum for co-ordination, and protection from undermining by the strong national government.

This means, without regions, and without administrative provinces, Rift Valley, either as a governance or administrative unit will be no more. There shall only be a national government and county governments (two tiers) entrenched in the constitution.

If you closely reflect what this means for instance at the South Rift, it means that majority of the Kipsigis will be sliced and diced into three counties, with some having their voices drowned out in Narok County, some dominated in Nakuru County, and the remaining having their say in Kericho district. The divide-and-rule dictum becomes apparent. The removal of a sense of communal unity becomes real.

Read on: http://jukwaa.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=3825


Kibaki did not need to raise a finger to achieve that. He has company. Unfortunately, that company shall be dropped to the dump-site as soon as the objective is achieved.