Gema’s tall order of finding region’s king

By WAINAINA NDUNG’U

The Gikuyu Embu and Meru Association was last Friday cast into the spotlight in what is likely to be its biggest headache since it was mooted more than 40 years ago.

Friday admission of the leadership crisis facing central Kenya because of the International Criminal Court (ICC) cloud hanging over presidential aspirant Uhuru Kenyatta is seen as Gema’s biggest challenge.

Bishop Lawi Imathiu with former Mungiki leader Maina Njenga at the Gema meeting. [PICTURE: JOHN MUCHUCHA/STANDARD]

The declaration at the Jumuiya Conference Centre is expected to attract admiration and scorn in equal measure.

Gema leaders had a day-long meeting at the birthplace of the independence party Kanu and its predecessor, the Kenya African Union, ostensibly to announce the political direction of the region after President Kibaki retires at the end of this year.

It is still doubtful whether Gema’s assertion that they would petition the ICC to postpone trial against Uhuru using the UN political system will be helpful to the politician’s ambition of becoming Kenya’s fourth president.

Some observers say Gema’s hard-line position may isolate Uhuru and set the ground for the ICC to issue arrest warrants at the next court appearance.

But some Gema insiders think the tribal-political posturing will assist the DPM and indeed the other three Kenyan ICC suspects in their cases. They say the message is a clear demonstration the country is headed for more polarisation ahead of transition General Election.

Close backers of the DPM argue that a message needs to be sent to the international community that they cannot afford to break one of Africa’s most stable democracies through what is "increasingly being seen as discriminative prosecutions at The Hague".

But that this campaign is being pushed by Gema is likely to also come with a silver lining granted that the association is seen as representative of Kikuyu, Embu and Meru elite, who cut their teeth during founding President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta’s tenure, suffered some nerve wrecking humiliation in the next regime before reappearing as strategic kingmakers in President Kibaki’s politically turbulent term.

A cross-section of Kikuyu politicians with their roots in Kiambu County launched Gema in the late 1960s when opposition to President Kenyatta’s rule peaked especially from Luo Nyanza following the 1966 falling out with his former ally and vice-president Jaramogi Odinga Oginga. The subsequent assassination of then Economic Planning minister and Kanu Secretary General Tom Mboya in 1969 worsened matters.