Merge parties and name flag bearer, Makueni Governor Kivutha Kibwana urges CORD

Makueni Governor Kivutha Kibwana

Follow the Jubilee route. This is the advice Makueni Governor Kivutha Kibwana is offering CORD leaders Raila Odinga, Kalonzo Musyoka and Moses Wetang’ula.

He dismisses political parties in Kenya as a big joke, and thinks the “Young Turks” raring to run the old guard out of town, will not achieve much.

Kibwana, an old stagger in activism once considered a compromise presidential candidate, discusses his idealism in politics, troublesome tenure as Makueni Governor and his hopes for the country. He spoke to The Standard on Sunday Senior writer NZAU MUSAU

QUESTION: There is a perception, and it came out during the days of the Commission of Inquiry into the Dissolution of Makueni County, that you are too elitist to appreciate the political realities of this country. What is the situation from your end?

ANSWER: Perhaps idealistic, not elitist. In Makueni, my ear and heart are every day on the ground. People know I am a peoples’ governor. That is why I have survived political hurricanes. However, I hate the politics of cheating people that one is their servant while merely salivating for office and public resources.

Q: The gamble on the petition: Why did you take it and were you sure you would come back?

A: I saw that a government elected to serve the people was not prioritising service. Even if I was not re-elected the point had already been made that in Kenya, we should abhor impotent or belly politics. After the Makueni “shocker” many county assemblies became sober.

Q: You were at the heart of the second liberation struggle. Six years after promulgation of the new Constitution, what are your thoughts on progress of the new order so far?

A: The 2010 Constitution has been the best gift Kenya has given to herself since independence. It has entrenched devolution and the prospect of social-cultural and economic independence and therefore the onset of a middle economy status. However, we must use it to fight negative ethnicity, corruption, youth exclusion and attempts by the political leadership to reverse devolution as happened in 1964.

Q. In the 1990s, you were even touted as a possible compromise presidential candidate alongside Willy Mutunga and Mutava Musyimi. What happened to your political star?

A: In 1999 after my MP Prof Sumbi died, I was requested to vie for the Makueni parliamentary seat. I declined. My mission then, as of now, was how to be part of midwifing the framework to democratise and humanise Kenya. As a leader of the civil society movement, I participated in nationwide civic education for the new multi-party order. Some of my academic work contains the structure and detail of our current constitution. I followed the draft constitution in the National Assembly when in 2002 I was elected as MP for Makueni. Later, I was advisor to President Mwai Kibaki when the Constitution was being finalised in Naivasha and at the National Assembly. In 2010, I considered my life’s work substantially done when as I sat in the background, I saw politicians who had opposed the constitution in the Kanu days, pledge to support it and appear to own it. To be part of Kenya’s change process, one does not have to be a president or even a politician.

Q: During the Kibaki presidency, you were his advisor on constitutional, parliamentary and youth affairs and joint secretary (with Miguna Miguna) to the Grand Coalition Government secretariat. What big lesson did you learn which can help the main coalitions in the country today?

A: The current two main coalitions are groupings of political convenience. They have yet to transcend ethnic boundaries. They have to establish distinct ideologies and vision such as America’s Democratic Party and Republican Party and Britain’s Labour Party and Conservative Party . I wish CORD could become one party so that we have two main political formations which in time can graduate into truly ideological identities so that we can join any not on the basis of the tribal affinity of the leaders, but their developmental orientation.

Q: Despite being a proponent of change in your heydays, there are those who felt let down at the time of your service in government. For example, your support for Kibaki’s unilateral nomination of Chief Justice in early 2010 shocked many. Did you change, does power change?

A: I consciously try to ensure political power does not get into my head. My reason for working for Kibaki was to serve a good man and a great country. I don’t remember supporting the President’s nomination of Chief Justice in 2010. The Ministry of Constitutional Affairs and the Attorney General had the mandate to advice on such a matter. I wanted to be Chief Justice myself. When I called my teacher and mentor Willy Mutunga and he told me he was applying, I deferred to him.

Q: What are your views on the political party regime in Kenya?

A: We don’t have political parties in Kenya in the proper sense of the word. For Kenya to transit into genuine multiparty democracy, our political parties must be members-driven institutions. I welcome two large parties and the coalescing of the rest into a balancing third force.

Q: Why did you choose to run for governorship under a little-known party Muungano. What is the future of these small parties in this era of mergers like the one happening in Jubilee?

A: I was afraid of unfairly losing in a flawed nomination process of a large party. Before the 2013 elections, all the small parties wanting to be affiliated to CORD applied for formal affiliation on the same terms as ODM, Ford Kenya and Wiper. However, we are yet to be allowed full status as affiliates alongside the three pillars of the coalition. A decision was taken to have two types of affiliates: principal and minor.

Q: Do you think CORD affiliate parties should merge just like Jubilee is doing?

A: In my view, the three principal CORD affiliates, the minor affiliate parties and the new parties which want to join should try to be one party. If they can’t become one party before the 2017 elections, they should do a democratic joint nomination as happened in the 2002 Narc nominations. We would then participate in the nominations as individual affiliates, with the winners offering themselves as CORD candidates. We must kill the idea of tribally driven coalition of parties. It is sad and risky that CORD is taking too long before announcing its two top candidates. A fall out near the electoral date is suicidal. Fund raising for the elections is not easy if potential supporters do not know the top candidates.

Q: There appears to be an onslaught of elder politicians by ambitious and calculating Young Turks. How do you plan to survive this onslaught of the likes of Mutula Kilonzo Junior and Patrick Musimba?

A: You can be young in age but ancient in terms of ideas and vice-versa. Some of the young politicians in Kenya are approaching politics from the old-style way. They focus on power for power’s sake but not as a means to mid-wife peoples’ change. As we fight each other, the people are left without accessing the development dividend. I call this: Siasa za Kumalizana (politics of destroying each other). It is a pity many of these post 2010 young Turks are working towards their political oblivion. Just take the example of Moi and Kibaki. What patience did they exhibit in their political journey?

Q: The Nyaoga Commission established exceptional and circumstances existed to suspend your government. In terms of the legal position and jurisprudence on the same, do you think it was right for the President to disagree with a judicial commission he formed?

A: The President took a decision because the constitution allowed him. I personally wished the county government would have been dissolved. We had lost 13 months without proper budgets being passed to facilitate use of development funds in both 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 financial years. Some of us seemed not to know what we were elected for. But the electors are ready in 2017 to return their verdict. The jury is out on its last stretch of deliberations.

Q: What is the single most achievement you have made in your tenure as Governor of Makueni?

A: Envisioning a governance system where our residents enjoy exercise of power and where development and potential prosperity are focused at the household level (we have about 170,000 households), not forgetting the unfolding of universal healthcare for our residents and the dawn of realising a pervasive water agenda. We intend to make full citizenship a reality in our county.

Q: During the conflict with the County Assembly, it is said you vowed that if there were new elections and the Speaker and the Majority Leader were re-elected you would resign, Does this still hold?

A: If I said that it must have been in anger. To err is human. I hope when I said that I had changed my mind by evening of the same day.

Q: What is the single thing you regret most about your term as a governor and for devolution in general?

A: We have had wars among the Executive, the County Assembly and most of our local national legislators. Up to now, I have an impeachment case hanging on my neck. Many of my executive committee members were slated to be removed by the assembly. I, several colleagues and some Makueni residents survived an assassination attempt. I also have had my shortfalls. As a consequence, we have lost 18 months from the 52 months of the first devolution government. I also regret there are some members of the political class in our country who want to sabotage devolution and its carrier, the 2010 Constitution.