{UAH} Allan/Edmund/Gwokto/Gook/Pojim/WBK: The system played Uhuru, Musalia in 2013 elections

https://www.nation.co.ke/kenya/news/politics/the-system-played-uhuru-musalia-in-2013-elections-1919740 

 

SUNDAY AUGUST 16 2020

    

Amani National Congress leader Musalia Mudavadi.

Summary

• Mr Kibaki was said to have been neutral, almost indifferent, whichever way his succession went.
• The statement was interpreted to warn Kenyans against voting in the UhuRuto duo whose cases were pending cases at the ICC.

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By Kamau Ngotho

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On Tuesday, Deputy President William Ruto was on the warpath. He said much as the "Deep State" is set to stop him, he would prevail just like he and candidate Uhuru Kenyatta did in the 2013 election when the "deep state" in place at the time didn't want them to ascend to power.

    ***

But in making the comparison, the DP – a smart orator with penchant to craftily cherry-pick and twist narratives in his favour– perhaps left out some details. Those familiar with the Mwai Kibaki succession say that unlike now, the so-called "system" at the time did not enjoy the President's support. Mr Kibaki was said to have been neutral, almost indifferent, whichever way his succession went.

More, in the 2013 succession, the "deep state" was opposed to Uhuru/Ruto presidency, due to the International Criminal Court cases, was split down the middle, a factor that helped buttress Mr Kibaki sit-on-the-fence position.

On the one hand was Harambee House power mandarins and top Intelligence officials with a linkman at State House. They advanced two arguments why UhuRuto shouldn't be on the ballot. Foremost, their pending cases at the ICC at The Hague.

Second, that Kenyans weren't ready for yet another President from Mount Kenya region - and specifically yet another Kenyatta. But there was also unstated grudge that in his brief tenure as cabinet minister in the Kibaki government, Mr Kenyatta didn't show enthusiasm working with entrenched power cartels at Harambee House. They weren't keen to have him as their next boss.

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ICC factor

On the other hand was the pro-Uhuru camp in the Kibaki "system". Note, it wasn't necessarily pro-Ruto—as they treated him with suspicion and only put him in the equation because of the ICC factor. Like the first, this camp too, had equal, if not more, influence on Kibaki. It was led by top military commanders, some of whom had close personal links with Mr Kibaki.

Also, in Mr Kenyatta's corner, there was a powerful "political activist"

Yet another of the "invisibles" in the Kibaki inner sanctums lobbying for a Uhuru presidency was his uncle, George Muhoho, a man who had remained a Kibaki confidant since the days when together they were marked men in President Daniel Moi rule.

Eventually, Kibaki, Muhoho, and veteran Maasai politician, John Keen, among others, would walk out on Moi to form the opposition party, Democratic Party of Kenya (DP).

           ***

I was watching TV news with politician John Keen on the day in early December 2012 when Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto announced they had stepped down in favour of Mr  Musalia Mudavadi to be the Jubilee presidential candidate.

Mzee Keen immediately rang Mr Muhoho to ask him what was happening. When he put his phone down, he told me:

"It appears we have not heard the last of this. My friend George (Muhoho) tells me kamwana (the young-man, a reference to Uhuru) is still the candidate."

The impression Mzee Keen got from the conversation with Uhuru uncle, and which turned out true, is that Mudavadi was being taken down the garden path.

     ***

It happened that on the same day President Kibaki agreed – or faked to – with one of the camps of his "deep state" that UhuRuto duo give way to Mudavadi, he also – true to his character – sanctioned the other "deep state" faction to sabotage Project Musalia.

According to a source familiar with the intrigues, at one point the two factions were in different offices in State House at the same time, each unaware of the other's presence. Oen group was in the office of the President's private secretary while the other was in the   Aide-de-Camp's office.

In the end, Mr Mudavadi's proposed candidature was overturned.  

American connection

When commenting on "Deep State" on Tuesday, DP Ruto alluded to statement made by then US assistant secretary of state for African Affairs, Johnnie Carson, that "choices have consequences" a month before 2013 elections.

The statement was interpreted to warn Kenyans against voting in the UhuRuto duo whose cases were pending cases at the ICC.

Significantly, but less remembered, Johnnie Carson statement, made on February 7, 2013,  came three days after President Barack Obama, on February 4, had categorically stated that the US wasn't for or against any candidate in the Kenyan election, and that it was up to Kenyans to decide.

Curiously when sought to comment as to why a junior functionary at US state department would contradict the White House, then US ambassador to Kenya, Robert Godec, was conveniently unavailable.

In a conversation this week, a senior official at the Foreign Affairs ministry then working at the UN disclosed that the double-speak by the US was deliberate. While Washington didn't want to be seen as condoning crimes against humanity for which UhuRuto duo had been prosecuted at the ICC, President Obama didn't want to be seen as interfering in a Kenyan election where one of the front-runners hailed from where he traces his paternal ancestry.

Saitoti link

But, it can also now be told, Jonnie Carson wasn't uninterested party in the 2013 Kenyan presidential election. A member of the Kibaki cabinet and who sat in the cabinet committee appointed to deal with the Kenyan ICC matter, and which was chaired by then Interior cabinet minister George Saitoti, tells of a stormy meeting at State House, where the camp of Mr Kenyatta, then deputy prime minister and member of the committee, accused Mr Saitoti of working with Carson and former UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, to block him from contesting for presidency.

Then ICC prosecutor, Moreno Ocampo, would later in an interview with BBC admit that he was under considerable pressure from certain western diplomats to have ICC Kenyan cases concluded in a pre-determined manner.

At the time it was the Kenyatta camp accusing Interior minister Saitoti of using the "Deep State" to frustrate his bid for presidency. The more things change, the more they remain the same.

nkngotho@gmail.com

Moses Ocen Nekyon

Democracy is two Wolves and a Lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed Lamb disputing the results.

Benjamin Franklin

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