{UAH} Pojim interesting Read::President Uhuru Kenyatta, Deputy President William shouldn’t rekindle past memories
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10:09 AM |
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By Kipkoech Tanui
Regardless of political affiliation or lack of it we all have own expectations on President Uhuru Kenyatta, Deputy President William Ruto and Jubilee team. This is because history has thrust on their hands the burden or privilege of steering Kenya.
Their young age and the perception they are more 'digital', more attune to the modern ways of doing things, and their own promise to be different from the dinosaur politicians of the old, persuades us that management of public affairs is going to be done differently. The ambitious laptop project for Standard One kids is just but an example of this new thinking.
We could say Kenya has changed in the close to four months they have been in power. We have a fairly youthful non-political Cabinet, county governments are taking shape, and principal secretaries are settling in, just like the new crop of public managers Uhuru and Ruto have picked.
But the story is not all that rosy as you would expect of a country so diverse as Kenya with its own internal contradictions, fanned by the tribal tag and the ugly spectre of corruption. We have had strike that grounded learning in public schools; the cost of living is soaring; unemployment crunch has sunk its teeth hard on the Kenyan flesh; insecurity is still lurking behind our shadows; and the political wounds opened up by the 2007 and 2013 elections are still festering. It is against this background that we look at Uhuru and Ruto and weigh their performance so far. They are our hope for the future, and the anchor of it all is the devolved model of government. This is where we need the most of their willpower and might to move things.
This is my view, even if it is unpopular; Uhuru and Ruto are skirting around a risky territory that if not corrected, would see historians a decade from now lump them together with the roguish, intolerant and repressive Kanu rule.
Tyranny of numbers
When they got to State House we started hearing cries, as Jubilee whetted its appetite for the fringe parties and winked at opposition MPs to cross to their side, that they should not kill the Opposition through the so-called tyranny of numbers. On Thursday, I read complaints by Coalition for Reforms and Democracy that tyranny of numbers has actually been deployed to whip through the Jubilee agenda arrogantly and boisterously.
So we have an Opposition struggling in its deathbed, having literally been neutered by the way Jubilee romped into victory despite the crimes against humanity charges hanging on the necks of Uhuru-Ruto at The Hague, and the way the international community recoiled at their candidature.
The thing with power is that it goes into the head when you have a weak Opposition and numerically strong government in both Houses. This in turn breeds intolerance and you need not go far and see how the Jubilee duo have treated Senators and Governors who have resisted the way Devolution is seemingly being strangled slowly. This week about 40 MPs from the Ruto's side of the coalition convened a news conference to denounce and chastise Bomet Governor Isaac Rutto. Like in the old Kanu days, we again heard about some characters called 'foreign elements', out to 'sabotage' the government.
We were also told of alleged funding of local 'rebels', equal to 'dissidents' in Kenyatta and Moi era, and threats to have them expelled from the co-ruling party. But what did Isaac Rutto do exactly? He merely expressed opinion contrary to that of the leader of his party, and even suggested a United Republican Party-Orange Democratic Movement alliance ahead of 2017.
He also accused Jubilee (which to Mr William Ruto's supporters means driving a knife at the heart of their supreme leader), of suffocating Devolution. This should raise alarm bell the way Mzee Jomo Kenyatta slowly mutated from a father figure to the one who would not brook contrary opinion, and so opened up Kamiti Maximum Prison for those who disagreed with his style of doing things.
Constant factor
His predecessor perfected the same after the abortive 1982 coup. In all this bizarre and bitter war against contrary opinions, the constant denominator was that one was undermining government with the support of foreigners, while also inciting hate and disaffection in the system.
Over at Criminal Investigations Department there are investigators trailing some pro-Raila Odinga aides over the same old claims that they want to bring down the government!
I laughed when I read that those are the claims the CID want to confront Raila's former election manager, Mr Eliud Owalo, with. I mean a guy who could not pull through an organised campaign has resorted to alternative means to get his man to State House! To me it would only be possible if Owalo was a fool, which I think he is not, or that CID's gullibility is that legendary.
The most likely scenario is that someone high up there still has a phobia for Raila, much in the same way Mzee Kenyatta had for his late father, or Moi's two-decade favourite pastime to bring down the Odingaism.
Nothing shocked me more than seeing Knut leaders in handcuffs or the Supreme Court's summons to LSK chairman Eric Mutua over his views on Uhuru-Ruto electoral victory. Both manifested some scary form of intolerance building up around us. This is something that should worry every Kenyan; not just Jubilee's rivals.
Once we allow the tree of intolerance to sprout from the ground, we should brace for difficult days ahead, because its trunk will be harder to cut and its branches impossible to bridle. In such situations not even the Jubilee diehards in government will be save from its intoxicating flagrance. Meanwhile, many of us in the media are guaranteed more invitations for continental breakfasts at State House!
The writer is Managing Editor, The County Weekly at The Standard.
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