By Udi Kagwe
It is difficult for anyone to deny that Kenya is at a good place today. Certainly much better than in years past. A brisk walk around Nairobi reveals working city traffic lights, clean parks (yes, even the Jevanjee Gardens are in impeccable order), painted and well repaired roads.
Driving to Mombasa, as many of us did over the jut ended holidays and we find that the road is well built and well done. The parts finished between Mtito Andei and the outskirts of the coastal city are well done and in good order.
The various industries from agriculture to tourism to ICT are opening up and there have been a good number of indusries opened. Investment in Kenya by kenyans has increased and data from the Central Bureau of Statistics is glowing.
As I write this, over 50,000 foreigners are gathered in Nairobi from all over the world for the next five days. They are attending the 7th World Social Forum at the Nairobi’s Kasarani Complex. Word has it that well over half of these people are not staying in hotels, but are put up in people’s houses across Nairobi. An estimated Kshs. 100,000,000 is being injected into the economy this week.
Just the other day the Kenyatta International Conference Centre was re-admitted into the association of conference venues called International Congress and Convention Association and also International Association of Congress Centres, after many years in exclusion.
All these and many more issues would indicate that President Mwai Kibaki is sitting pretty to be re-elected for another five years ass Kenya’s leader. Or would it?
Against him
As things look right now, the most obvious blemish on President Kibaki’s administration is the ever unfolding Kshs. 50 Million corruption scandal, in which key members of his cabinet, David Mwiraria, Energy Minister and poet, Kiraitu Mutungi as well as his number 2, Kenya’s favorite uncle, Moody Awori.
Some shenanigans are clearly being held as Justice Aaron Ringera attempts to clear the ministers of any wrongdoing. A key positive thing about todays Kenya is that there are no media inhibitions and we quickly heard stinging critisism and condemnation of the action to the extent that the Attorney General was forced to back track – if ever so slightly.
In Oxford, the indegefatigable Czar of Fighting Graft, John Githongo has vowed to fight it out to the bitter end. As far as he goes, there shall be no sweeping of anything under any carpet.
Essentially what this means for Kibaki is that he’s in a bad position and if not handled well, things could go awry for him. On the one hand, he has to keep his friends close if he is to return to power and on the other, the county will have him for dinner if he doesn’t deal with it.
All indications are that he is asleep on the job and that he has refused to do anything about the situation.
Don’t under Estimate Kibaki
It would be a dangerous mistake to assume that Kibaki has gone dormant. History has shown that he is a wile individual and that his silence always means something.
In Former President Moi’s cabinet, Kibaki was the most closely watched by Moi’s men because he was perceived as the greatest threat. No wonder because it was he and “Sir” Charles Mugane (jokingly pronounced Mue-Gain) Njonjo, who outmaneuvred the Kiambu Mafia from making a travesty of the constitution – by simply announcing the cabinet’s support for the Vice President.
During this time that he was being so closely watched, Kibaki spent his time very conservatively, nary being seen in secret meetings. Stories are told of how he told people at the Muthaiga Golf Club to stay away or else they would be in trouble.
On December 25th 1986, Kibaki resigned – with a press statement rather than a quiet reignation letter to the president. Barely a week later, he announced the birth of DP – complete with National offices at locational levels.
A similar stance was taken in the previous election and some analysts claim that Kibaki actually manipuated the opposition leaders to agree on him. Certainly before he was seen at the breakfast meetings with Charity Ngilu and the late Wamalwa, he was as always a deep river, running silently.
Beware of the falls.
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Filed under: Kenyan Politics, column | 9 Comments
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Don’t sugar coat a lazy,senile,impotent,cowardly and out-of-tune 70’s man who happen to be our president.His only chance for re-election is opposition(ODM) disentegrating.
Nice & well balanced article Udi.
As for Patrick I have sad news for you (and for me as well). Kibaki will be re-elected and not because of his/his govts outstanding achievements (I could count maybe just one i.e improving the economy; which I believe would have improved anyway because Kenyans word damn hard) but because there is no contender worth toppling the old man off his seat.
Yes you heard me – (as much as I believe Uhuru should be the chairman of KANU, that he should leave all that ODM-K hullaballoo and work on cleaning up the messes in KANU till 2010 when he will surely be ripe for the Presidency) – I believe that there is currently no one who stands a head above the rest (as was the case of David in the Bible) as a clear leader for 2007 & beyond.
Therefore, better the devil we know. Hopefully, giving the Kibaki administration another 5 years will put us in good stead as far as any transitional govt should take us in terms of having some semblance of economic stability.
I ideally agree with Vee, there is no possible better contender for presidency unless the one who is yet to come.
Incidentally i think voting ODM would be sneaking in KANU via backdoor.
I will not trash what Kibaki has done, though some things do leave a lot to be desired.
One thing that disappoints me totally about Kibaki administration is the lack of good will to fight corruption.
Otherwise the so called grumpy old man, many Kenyans will agree with me that he has tried his best especially if you have been fortunate enough to have stints at the Civil service.
It looks increasingly like President Kibaki will run and win a second term. Kibaki’s victory will be a triumph of pragmatism and progress over ethnic division and hatred. We could even simplify this further and say that it will be a triumph of good over evil.
By this I do not mean to label the opposition evil, opposition is a central and necessary ingredient in a healthy democracy. The evil is in the tactics adopted by the most virulent section of the opposition. This section led by LDP base their campaign against the President on fanning the flames of ethnic hatred and regionalism.
LDP and their de-facto leader Raila Odinga were once members of the ruling coalition NARC. Soon after NARC came into power LDP devised a plan to take over power for themselves, seeking what Raila Odinga referred to as “a luo presidency”. Early on in the new goverment LDP was introducing a tribal or ethnic component to its politics. In LDP’s agenda published shortly after NARC came to power, LDP stated “4. The government must be isolated and shown as a Mt. Kenya backed government without national appeal.” This simple statement signaled LDP’s intention to create regional division and to ride the consequent wave of ethnic hatred to power(Raila’s tsunami).
But is this evil you may ask. The answer is a blunt yes. The deadliest conflicts in the twentieth century all occurred in areas of great ethnic diversity, where politicians exploited ethnicity as a weapon to achieve political power. The byproduct in all these areas has been a paroxysm or “tsunami” of ethnic violence and ethnic cleansing that left millions dead. So when LDP lights the match of tribalism and tosses it into the tinderbox that is Kenya, they are displaying a callous disregard for life in their gluttonous quest for power.
Ethnic hatred is a powerful weapon and that is why LDP chose that route to power. But how are they deploying it and why won’t it work. The first thing that LDP’s and their apologists have done is to try and paint the government as a Mount Kenya affair just like their agenda plotted.
LDP have used lies like the cabinet and civil service are mostly from the Kikuyu tribe of President Mwai Kibaki even though this is public information and easily disproved. LDP has beaten this drum repeatedly raising ethnic sensitivity to unrealistic levels especially among their supporter. The result is that any Kikuyu or other Kenyan with a Kikuyu sounding name who happens to be in government is viewed as proof of Kibaki’s tribalism. By promoting this view LDP seeks to create ethnic grievance and therefore try to isolate Kikuyus and rally other tribes behind their leader Raila.
There have been a myriad other lies promoted by LDP all designed to promote a sense of ethnic grievance and all thoroughly debunked but yet repeated endlessly by LDP’s tribal warriors. We all know allegations that the majority of government scholarships go to Kikuyus easily debunked when the list was produced in Parliament. The allegation that 70% of DC’s are Kikuyus , that only Kikuyus are benefiting from the economy, that Nyanza failed KCPE because education money was allocated to central province and not Nyanza. That Kikuyus are stealing and robbing the country blind and a thousand other pernicious lies.
Interestingly at the height of LDP’s ethnic campaign they accuse the President some saying “Kibaki has never missed a chance to remind us of his intense tribal leanings”. Despite this kind of patently false statements the LDP ethnic hatred campaign is coming to naught. Even though LDP have succeeded in polarizing the country along tribal lines they have been unable to harness that tribal hatred they have generated to propel Raila to power. Instead other regions have come up with their own champions and it is not clear that they will support Raila in the end.
A major problem with LDP’s ethnic campaign is that it is based on lies. It generates ethnic division but destroys Raila and LDP’s credibility. LDP has maintained that Kibaki has done nothing for Kenya, he has been asleep, incompetent etc. LDP has persisted in this fiction for almost 4 years but in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary they appear increasingly delusional.
Recently LDP leader Raila Odinga has been forced to grudgingly admit the gains the government has made. Raila lauds govt development effort an incongruous statement on Raila’s part. Raila did not recently discover what the government had done, rather his lies were becoming increasingly exposed in the face of unassailable evidence of economic and social progress.
Now Raila’s is treating us to ridiculous contortionist tricks as he tries to lay claim to the governments development record even as he trashes the President. Lang’ata MP Raila Odinga wants some of the achievements made by the Government credited to ODM-K.. Obviously ODM-K has never been in goverment so he must be reffering to LDP. If ODM-K (LDP) want to claim the governments successes are they willing to claim it’s failures?
Even the Presidents staunchest and most unfair critics the Standard Newspaper were forced by the weight of facts to admit the governments great progress. Economy promising despite political heat . It is the cognitive dissonance between LDP’s message of hatred and ethnic grievance and actual events that is responsible for the failure of LDP’s campaign against the goverment.
Recent polls indicate that a majority of Kenyans support the President and recognize the governments achievements. This will be a unique occurrence in the world finally pragmatism will defeat the forces of ethnic prejudice. Another incredible triumph for the man from Othaya who has all along preached hard work and a Working Nation while leading the way by keeping his mouth shut and his foot on the pedal..
There is one problem though,
kikuyus narrow this to a tribal thing.
And what all kenyans know for sure sure is this, u can support Kibaki all you want, but dont you know that not only Kikuyus vote???
It will come to pass, that this is the year we throw Kikuyus out. Call me a tribalist, but pliz note the number of centreal province members in the cabinet, what a shame!!!
Feel free to call me whatever u want but thats the bitter truth.
So all other kenyans lets polish our voting cards…..and let this be the year of action.
Daniels,It might not be as easy as you think to remove Kikuyus from power.
Kikuyus rule Kenya and they will always will.
Case scenario:You remember Referendum?All 41 tribes voted against the ONE tribe.Results?60% against 40%.One tribe alone!!!!!40%. In ODM,there are so many wrangles and trbes (Kamba and Luo and Luhya) have been heard to say that if one of their sons is not chosen to represent ODM,they would rather vote for Kibaki.
Kikuyus are by far more superior and industrious than any other tribe in East AFrica-that is a fact;like it or not.
im not a kikuyu-im a Digo but let truth be told.
I really wish I could comment on these comments but the quality of the debate is very low indeed! It’s more of a feel good exchange where the main protagonists are deaf..
Eliud you are right, these guys are wasting valuable space and time expounding negative ethnicity. Just a thought though, for Vee and Udi, do you still think that it is absolutely impossible to ‘remove’ kibaki?
I dont like the ethnic arrogance we show as members of a country. we can do better nourning the fact that politicians have always used the ethnic card since indepependence to ensure their own self-perpetuation. we kill each other ‘for them’, we abuse and insul each other ‘for them’, we even maim our relatives and lose friendships ‘for them’. When then shall we reawaken to this reality, especially the young who must rescue the ambitions of our generation from gerontocratic regimes suffering from colonial hang-overs?
peace to all !!
i think somebody is missing the point here. the 60%/40% ration in the referendum was not kenyans vs kikuyus. this is so because, although kikuyus and the rest of gema voted almost 100% bananas, very many other regions like bukusus, kambas, rift valley, kisii etc voted bananas too. remove this big part from the 40% and kibaki gets 20-25% in the coming general elections.add the way lucy has been treating kenyans of late and another 5-10% is gone. add the silence being witnessed among kibakis soldiers and the infighting among the various panua friendly parties another 5-10% goes.the man should actually be out of the race by now- he really has guts eh!
i am not a luo, but i can assure yu that come jan 2008 raila will be your president.