Uhuru’s make-believe world of teleprompters has deep, past echoes

By Peter Kimani

Like most movies made in Hollywood, Uhuru Kenyatta’s act arrived in town four years late: Barack Obama’s rolled up sleeves, the “believe” leitmotif, and the social-media hype came and went a while back.

But then, at 51, UK is an impressionable young man and The National Alliance (TNA) party launch provided such great entertainment value some fans have stuck to the TNT acronym.

I rather like TNT; it’s the affirmation that in spite of UK’s convincing act, pretty little was lost that the whole razzmatazz – complete with change of costumes backstage in the building bearing his father’s name – was rather contrived.

We are not talking about the UK’s irrationality of setting adrift on a sailboat with “engine-oiled with dreams,” rather than proper fuel, and so bound to stall after losing steam. Or even the age-old allusions to the “national cake,” which confirmed his obsession with eating.

What was interesting was UK’s replication of his father’s vision of eradicating some odious afflictions named ignorance, disease and poverty — nearly 50 years after the good old Jomo set out to achieve same goals. Maybe he said it for Jomo’s sake, as the grand old man sat listening through the whole speech.

UK’s other words had a ring of familiarity to them — even when delivered from a lofty teleprompter, with the swagger of a rockstar. There was manifest appropriation of words that other great men have delivered in the past, and UK appeared uninhibited in parodying them.

Never mind the litany of Obama-speak: what unites us is greater than what divides, or the love of my life nonsense; the gems in UK’s weekend went further and deeper.

mountain tops

You probably remember Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream speech. The speech by African-American leader, who was assassinated in 1969 was appropriated, with proper acknowledgement, by Justice minister Eugene Wamalwa.

UK did it, too, minus the attribution. Hear him: “When our courts never shy from doing (not dispensing) justice, as justice has the capacity to proclaim itself from mountain tops. We have every reason to raise our eyes up (sic) unto the hills...”

What UK had in mind was King’s 1969 thunder: “Let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!...”

UK wasn’t done. After outlining what TNA or TNT would strive to achieve, he was emboldened to pronounce: “Ladies and gentlemen, it is now in your hands, the power to truly attain that what we all dream for Kenya. The foundation has been laid and the mason’s tools are once again in your hands...”

One would be tempted to ask what laymen would be doing with unfamiliar tools in their hands, or even why the builders are not able to build after completing the foundation.

The restoration of tools in your hands was to validate Nelson Mandela’s “it’s in your hands now” edict that he gave in 2008 during his 46664 concert in London’s Hyde Park, which coincided with his 90th birthday.

Perhaps such details pale into insignificance when one reviews UK’s position in history. He is the eldest son of his father, who sat in regal majesty of KICC lawns listening in statuesque silence.

And the roiling swirl of humanity that bore witness to the spectacle of a son paying homage to a departed father grasped little of the rituals where the dead come to life, and the past becomes present with the sophistry that only UK can marshal on a teleprompter.

 

Why the next revolution in our  beloved continent will be cycled

There is trouble in the North, as well as the South. I’m talking about the North African state of Mali, where protesters most of them peasants walking barefoot, and others riding dust-filled bikes, descended on the presidential palace and parked their bikes and gave their caretaker Prezzo, some guy called Traore, a good thrashing. This happened as the guards watched.

The beating was so severe that Traore guy had to be flown to France for treatment.

Down South, the Prezzo of South Africa Jake Zuma has been ruffled by a painting of him striking a Lenin pose. That’s all fine only that Zuma’s genitals are exposed.

This is in apparent reference to Zuma’s fabled womanising, which has yielded in a dozen or two children from his multiple wives and mistresses.

Zuma has gone to court to compel the private gallery to remove the offending image from an ongoing exhibition. The gallery has insisted on the artist’s freedom of expression and hired armed bodyguards and instituted body checks for those entering the exhibition hall.

our own Prezzo

Still, that did not prevent two men a middle-aged white men and a young man from sneaking in and splashing the offending life-size image with black and red paint. Defaced, the image may have lost its appeal, but Zuma is still proceeding on with the plaint. These two episodes — the bashing of a president literally and symbolically — make our own Prezzo look very appealing.

I doubt it if any protesters can cycle or walk to his palace and harass him, or even paint him in unflattering light, can they?

 

The good archbishop broke no law before God and man

I wish to correct you the impression created in your last week’s column. The Anglican Archbishop and his bride broke no law.

It is prescribed in the marriage law that one can have a marriage ceremony without banns after paying a prescribed fee to the Attorney General.

The presiding officer whether, a priest or registrar will indicate in the marriage certificate whether the ceremony was done with or without banns.

In fact the marriage ceremony is a contract between two adult individuals.

The rest, that is, the public and witnesses may not be that necessary and cannot nullify the ceremony or render it invalid.

Rev Jephthah K. Gathaka

Executive Director

Ecumenical Centre for Justice and Peace

Editor’s note:

There was no suggestion that the archbishop broke any law. The commentary highlighted the absence of banns, and there was no evidence as Rev Gathaka suggests, that alternative notice was offered at the Office of the Registrar.