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