Okiya Omtatah Okoiti is a poet, playwright and human rights activist. But how the gentleman earns his daily bread is a mystery.

You see, Omtatah is always causing matata. If he’s not chaining himself to a police station fence, cops are hauling him by the seat of his pants, kicking and screaming like a vagabond, from hotels and whatnot.

Sadly, Omtatah aspires to be president

Comically, while he is a man of letters, his shouts simply get lost in the wind as he is dragged away in the full glare of television cameras. No one actually remembers what it is that Omtatah’s last protest was about. But what many people don’t know is that Omtatah’s is also a politician.

For those not in the know, Omtatah is associated with a shadowy outfit called the Justice and Development Party of Kenya. This is a briefcase political party whose logo is a chain breaking into two and whose slogan is a ‘Jipange Usipangwe’. Except that Omtatah insists on pangaring everyone.

While his JDP aspires to be a fully democratic and just political entity, it finds nothing wrong with recalling parliamentarians who do not toe the party line by not voting for a number of Bills, apparently a pre-condition for their nomination on the party ticket. This clause is draconian. It reeks of a dictatorship.

And that’s the trouble with Omtatah. He’s a zealot. He believes fervently in the cause and anyone with a contrary view must be ambushed, shouted at and vilified. Little wonder then that while he is a human rights campaigner, he doesn’t find it odd to noisily oppose the rights of one Justice Aaron Ringera to assemble, associate and have lunch with the LSK Chairman.

Sadly, Omtatah aspires to be president. He’s also an avowed follower of President Obama. Unfortunately, his modus operandi is light years away from the grandson of Kogelo. For Obama is a keen listener — calm, collected, dignified and professorial.

china shop

But Omtatah conducts himself like an enraged bull in a china shop. No doubt Omtatah’s heart is in the right place. But his fellow poet and playwright, Vaclav Havel, became president of Czechoslovakia on the strength of his intellect, integrity, personality and force of character, not by causing ridiculous public matata bordering on nuisance.

Strategists become president, noisemakers never.