Why House of Mumbi should back Raila’s presidential bid

NASA flag bearer Raila Odinga

Today I want to turn politics on its head – literally. What I am proposing may appear rocket science at first, but on second thought, it’s common sense. Every five years, Kenyans cry about the ethnic matrix in our voting patterns.

Kenya’s 42 ethnic groups vote almost to a person for their ethnic baron, or the leader endorsed by their ethnic kingpin. Then – almost as predictably – the same voters complain about tribalism in our politics. That’s because most of our citizens are tribalists, not nationalists – or Kenyans.

The House of Mumbi – alias the Agikuyu – can redeem us from this bondage of mental slavery. The Agikuyu can forever transform Kenyan politics by electing NASA flag bearer Raila Odinga President in the August 8 elections.

Let me explicate. First, the Agikuyu are a dominant economic group – and still constitute the largest ethnic group in the country. This commanding position becomes hegemonic when the Agikuyu are combined with their close cousins the Ameru and the Embu. The Akamba, part of this cultural cousinage, have long been historical rivals to the Agikuyu.

As such, they are ineligible a clientilist relationship with the Agikuyu. Otherwise, the central-eastern Bantu groups would be a formidable political ethnic juggernaut, and forever prevent the coalescence of Kenya into one coherent nation. This little undiscussed fact gives us hope that Kikuyu hegemony can be reversed in favour of Kenyan nationalism. Those who are dominant owe Kenya the greatest debt for its survival and future.

Second, we must face historical facts. Running away from history doesn’t make it untrue, or any less factual. In fact, history deniers are a civilisation’s worst enemies.

The most important historical fact for Kenya’s inability to cohere into a nation is Kikuyu political greed for power. I know many will take great umbrage at this statement. It’s simply a fact of Kenya’s political science, and any scholar worth her salt will readily admit it.

Society pays me to think – and to be irreverent to un-interrogated, or uncomfortable truths. It’s my job to initiate difficult national conversations, and to go where others who are more conventional won’t. Mine is to call a spade by its name, and not a small spoon.

Third, Let me tell you why Mr Odinga’s ascension to the presidency – especially with Kikuyu support – would be a game changer for Kenya. To be sure, Mr Odinga’s rise to the pinnacle of power without Kikuyu support would be transformative, but it would be doubly so with Kikuyu support. This is where Kikuyu greed for political power comes in.

It’s historical fact that the Agikuyu – as a people – have never supported a candidate who was not a Gikuyu for the office of the President of the Republic of Kenya. Let me state another historical fact – all other ethnic groups have at one time or another supported a candidate who wasn’t one of their own for president. This fact sets the Agikuyu apart from all others.

Political emotion

Fourth, Mr Odinga embodies the collective national symbol of political exclusion by the dominant house of Mumbi. His father, the late opposition doyen – Jaramogi Oginga Odinga – lives in Raila. This is a statement about history and legacy, not fiction, or political emotion. Whether anyone likes it or not, Raila Odinga is the living personification of Jaramogi’s long and unrequited political journey to State House. By proxy, Mr Odinga carries with him the ambitions of the Luo Nation to the full citizenship of the country’s politics and zeitgeist. But this goes beyond the Luo.

If Mr Odinga makes it in August, other groups – the Masai, Taita, Akamba, Luhya, and Somali, to name a few – will feel that they too belong, and can produce a president. Fifth, for those with historical amnesia, let’s recall that Raila father – Jaramogi – was offered the premiership by the British when Mzee Jomo Kenyatta was languishing in jail.

The elder Odinga refused to accept the splitist tactics of the colonialists. He told the British that Mzee Kenyatta must be freed and offered the premiership. It’s a tragedy of history – and the beginning of the fracture of a nascent Kenya – that Mzee Kenyatta and Mr Odinga had an acrimonious political divorce.

Mr Kenyatta later detained Mr Odinga. Luo Nyanza then became a breeding ground for oppositionists. After a brief interlude to find Jaramogi’s opposition successor, his son Raila emerged as the king of the outsider political class.

It’s Mr Odinga who made it possible for NARC’s Mwai Kibaki – another Kikuyu – to ascend to win in 2002. It was Mr Odinga’s cry of ‘Kibaki tosha’ at Uhuru Park that vaulted Mr Kibaki into State House. But Mr Kibaki and the so-called Mt Kenya Mafia sidelined Mr Odinga. This is why the Agikuyu must support Rala in August.

- The writer is SUNY Distinguished Professor at SUNY Buffalo Law School and Chair of KHRC.

@makaumutua.