Kenya’s political madhouse

Since independence, Kenya’s political arena wanders between the comic strip where characters are keen to throw mud or hugs at each other depending on what will win votes at that time, and a politburo-style class of tribal kingpins in whom it is instilled by their fathers or political mentors that politics is a strict realm of the chosen ones. Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, the no-nonsense charismatic founding father of the nation earned his position by sweat and blood, plus seven years in an isolated prison. For all his heavy handedness on the then opposition leader Oginga Odinga, he resisted the Kikuyu mafia around him, chose a humble former primary teacher without a strong political constituency or a famous father, and set him on the path of presidential succession. Having survived the Kikuyu onslaught, President Moi evolved into a shrewd political operator (Professor of Politics) in order to balance the different interests of the big tribes and keep himself in power. Even though when a failed coup in 1982 in which Oginga Odinga’s son and now current prime minister Raila Odinga was allegedly involved, the old man put off his gloves and threw into jail a slew of his political opponents including Raila. Moi maintained all through his presidency a complicated coalition of small tribes that effectively kept the Luos and especially the Kikuyu’s out of power. This was inspite the fanatical to-a-man support the Odinga family enjoyed among the Luo and the apparent inability of Kikuyu to vote for someone else. Clearly, tribalism has provided a backdrop for political organisation and notoriously peaked around the election period yet surprisingly in a non-election year, Kenya is as peaceful as it can get. Away from politics, tribalism was supposed to be the joke of the day. Comedians who mimicked various accents of English and Swahili influenced by the different mother tongues perfectly became instant hits. Tribes grew into the stereotypes that were pre-established. Kikuyu’s were the shrewd businesspersons who had in their possession majority of African-owned businesses. Luos were the overeducated, extravagant type who were eager to flash their wealth whenever as soon as it came. Luyhas were content with working as unskilled labourers on Kalenjin farms or as guards and had a knack for moving with a radio glued to their ears while Kalenjins cared too much abut their cattle and land. The stereotypes were juxtaposed in politics. Mau Mau, a Kikuyu outfit, led the armed fight for independence against the whites because colonialists had displaced them from the fertile Mt. Kenya region to distant bare reserves. So the Kikuyu believe that they have a natural right to power, and wealth perhaps. The distaste for each other between the Luo and Kikuyu, which began with Mzee Kenyatta and the elder Odinga, meant that Kikuyu’s thought it was their responsibility to keep the Luo’s out of power. Also, among the Kalenjin and the Kikuyu, and any other tribes where circumcision was a right of passage, an uncircumcised man was a child. The Luo’s right of passage was knocking out six lower front teeth. As soon as Raila assumed his father’s political mantle, he quickly found a political vehicle by hook and crook and took with him the Luo support to his party wholesomely, immediately diving into presidential politics. Raila alarmed political watchers when he went in bed with Moi after the 1997 election when everybody else wanted to boycott the results. With hindsight, Raila wanted to either take over Moi’s political constituency after him or destroy it from within in case he could not achieve the first goal. He managed the later in 2002 and handed over the presidency to Kibaki but was soon back in the political bunkers fighting the man he put in power. He championed an embarrassing loss of a referendum on the new constitution, curiously with the support of Moi, and then used the anti-referendum machine, the Orange Democratic Movement, to prepare a bid for the big office himself. Kibaki’s businessman-like hands-off approach to power favoured Raila’s populist search for power and if what we heard is true, managed to organize a non-Kikuyu tribal coalition that was too big for Kenyatta’s tribe. In fact, analysts doubt if Kibaki, the political gentleman was really the man behind the alleged rigging and no wonder in the coalition government, the president has gone back to his hands off style and left his friend turned-foe-turned partner, Raila to go about his Prime Ministerial duties almost undeterred. So, was it the Kikuyu business community fearing a backlash from the Luo’s if Raila took power (Moi tried but never really dismantled the Kikuyu business machine), or was it a case of a government that just could not lose an election to a feared but very shrewd opponent? Perhaps, we will never know. What we know is that Oginga Odinga was once Kenyatta’s vice president before they fell out in 1969 and spent the rest of his life opposing Kenyatta, then Moi. Kibaki’s was one of the most successful finance ministers in Kenya and even served under Moi as vice president before he went to the opposition and beat Moi’s chosen successor, Kenyatta’s son, whose godfather is Kibaki himself. Raila, Oginga’s son who was tortured by Moi, challenged him in elections, before he became his cabinet Minister then wrecked Moi’s party to hand Kibaki an easy win and later stood together with the same Moi to defeat Kibaki’s government in a referendum. Note that in the 2007 election, Moi, and Uhuru Kenyatta, who was defeated by Kibaki in 2007 both supported Kibaki, while Raila was massively supported by the Kalenjin’s Moi’s tribe because Kibaki had purged the government of many undeserving Kalenjin’s Moi had put in positions for, you guessed right, Kikuyus. There is an old joke that Kenyan politicians abuse each other at rallies and press conferences during the day and at night, they wine and dine like one single family. Welcome to this political madhouse? Contact: kelviod@yahoo.com