Uhuru’s camp takes on Njonjo

By Ndung’u Wainaina

The Kibaki succession debate in Central Kenya has awakened bitter exchanges between opposing political camps in the region.

Former powerful Attorney General and Constitutional Affairs Minister Charles Njonjo and retired Anglican Archbishop David Gitari told the Kikuyu community to forget about producing the next President.

"You all know that we produced the first President of the republic in President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta. President Kibaki is also a son of our community," said Gitari.

The two who spoke at a church fundraiser in Kirinyaga County said it will be selfishness of the highest order for the community to expect to produce a successor to President Kibaki in elections expected next year.

Njonjo and Gitari are among a few Central Kenya leaders seen to be supporting Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s bid to succeed Kibaki.

"How selfish would we be to think that we should be producing yet another president of the republic?" Njonjo told the congregation at the Anglican Church of Kenya St Mathews Church in Ngiriambu, Gichugu District.

Njonjo urged leaders from the Kikuyu community to opt out of the race and allow leaders from other tribes to contest for the presidency or at the very least to support a candidate coming from other communities for the presidency.

Dr Gitari spoke while delivering the Sunday sermon, while Njonjo spoke to the congregation before the fundraiser for the proposed Samuel Mukumba Gitari Health Centre.

To be located within the church grounds, the facility is in honour of the late father of Bishop Gitari who was one of the first African Anglican missionaries in the country.

According to a reliable source, leading presidential candidate Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta sent a donation and his camp was disappointed the fundraiser ended up being a platform to campaign for other political interests.

"Njonjo and Gitari have already declared the side they are in on the Kibaki succession. We will wait for the results of the General Election rather than engage them in a debate about irrelevancies," said a close aide of Uhuru speaking on a customary condition of anonymity.

Undemocratic demands

The Uhuru aide specifically accused Njonjo of forming a habit of attacking President Kibaki’s Government over their historical differences.

Mathira MP Ephraim Maina who chairs the Central Kenya Parliamentary Group also criticised the two for introducing "undemocratic" tribal demands on likely presidential candidates.

"Nobody should be entertaining such talk," said the Mathira MP.

"If they go that route we risk denying our country the best presidential candidates and setting a dangerous precedent where every tribe will start demanding their chance to produce the president."

Gitari and Njonjo had criticised the anointment of presidential candidate Uhuru Kenyatta as the preferred candidate of the Gikuyu, Embu and Meru Association (Gema) during a meeting at the Limuru Conference Centre meeting last month saying there was no way the blessings of a "few leaders could be equated to the support of the whole community."

Tribal groups

Both Njonjo and Gitari said groups such as Gema and Kamatusa did not have a place in the present political reality in the country and warned that they were a recipe for chaos and tribal animosity.

"Kenya is one country and must trudge on as one," said Njonjo.

"We (Kikuyus) must also accept that there are other sometimes more educated and qualified people for Presidency from outside the community."

But the Uhuru aide retorted: "What Kenyans must always remind themselves is that Njonjo was one of the most powerful persons in this country. What did he achieve to warrant the regular attacks he makes on Kibaki and how many votes can he and Gitari bring to the political side they are supporting?"

Maina, however, said Kenya’s political environment is dynamic will likely lead to the formation of various alliances which will look keenly at all the issues leading to the fielding of candidates acceptable across the country.

Election Parameters

Njonjo had also supported a call by Gitari to elect leaders who are incorruptible, honest and trustworthy, saying the present leadership could be rightly accused of taking positions only because of the hefty salaries they take home.

"The three qualities should be applied equally as parameters for electing leaders across the six leadership positions on offer at the general election," Dr Gitari had told the congregation during the sermon.

Njonjo said only when Kenyans elected honest leaders would the country reap the benefits of the new Constitution promulgated in August 2010.

Dr Gitari said groupings such as Gema and Kamatusa should expect resistance from within and without their communities.

Njonjo on his part said the people of Kenya have the final say on who will be their next Head of State and cautioned that any community seeing itself as a monopoly of astute leadership was misguided, and likely to lose out in the next political dispensation.

Many skeptics

Described by Dr Gitari as an authority on Kenyan politics and one of the leading members of the Anglican lay, Njonjo urged "impartial" clergymen such as the retired bishop to advise Kenyans on how to manage the "Kibaki succession".

He said a meeting called by Dr Gitari and others at the All Saints Cathedral in the days prior to the 2010 referendum on the current Constitution had helped convince many skeptics to support the new laws.

The two were in the company of relatively obscure local leaders and the function went on peacefully after other expected leaders who supported the aborted ‘anti Gema’ Limuru 2B conference failed to turn up.

Earlier reports had indicated that there was a possibility of chaos if the leaders, including former Mungiki leader Maina Njenga turned up for the function.