Uhuru should not budge over ICC if he knows he is innocent

By Charles Gundo

In the past, opinions have been expressed about whose project Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta is. I find this lazy.

A caricature of Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta as a toddler in nappies being dragged against his wish into the dangerous waters of Kenya’s politics is brave propaganda.

The son of Jomo sits pretty at the front row of Kenya’s nobility. The family of Jomo has probably relished the best in terms of opportunity.

Uhuru could easily have been Alladin, that legendary character with a magic lamp genie that fulfilled his every wish. Jomo, God rest his soul, may be no more, but the man did not leave his family making bricks without straw.

My point is that the Kenyatta family remains, and has always been hugely influential in local economics and politics, and if there is anything that has been the project of the other, it is Kenya. The influence of the Kenyatta family has been such that even after two decades of Moi’s presidency, the self- proclaimed professor of politics became a "Canute" trying to hand back the presidency to Jomo’s household.

Today, the second President in a row is bending over backwards to give the presidency back to the same household. Who is whose project in these arrangements? Is it conceivable that over the years, the central Kenya constituency and the entire country have been nurtured into becoming little soldiers at the gates of Alladin’s cave?

Is this even possible given that it is in Central and Rift Valley provinces that some of the most doomy tales of land dispossession abound yet Alladin’s cave contains some huge tracts of choice land that could otherwise be in the ownership of these landless and hapless little soldiers? I am convinced that with the International Criminal Court in town, the balloon is up. President Kibaki seems to have dropped any pretences as to who pulls the strings in his Government if the last Cabinet reshuffle is any pointer. Since 1978, the Government has never actually changed hands.

The heart of it has remained in Mama Ngina’s household. But the chickens may be coming home to roost. With all the resources that lie in Alladin’s cave, I will eat my hat if Alladin and his family do not do anything and everything to neutralise the threat to their treasure.

Ever since it dawned on the family that the ICC could have an interest in the key to the cave and its contents, the game changed.

Kenyans are caught up unawares in these cloak and dagger, do or die manouvres to secure Alladin’s cave and its contents.

The latest formula that has been developed by the inner circle think tank is the ‘Bashir formula’. Kenyans should realise that this is no child play, and the country and its citizens are only pawns in this zero-sum game. ICC threatens the wealth of the Kenyatta family through the legal provision for attachment.

I do not see the end to which the family will not go to protect Alladin’s cave. There isn’t.

We must wake up and smell the coffee. When the so- called Gema and Kamatusa populace are marshalled into war frontiers for two individuals out of 38 million Kenyans, who is whose project? Some people have said this: The suspects are innocent and must therefore confidently and calmly go to The Hague to seek that declaration of innocence. It may well be that they aren’t, and society is in no place to live with such criminality.

Uhuru knows in his heart of hearts whether he is innocent. If the latter is the case, I do not see him budging in his quest to shield himself and the family wealth from the ICC the only proven way so far, is the Bashir way. Uhuru must run, there is no choice.

The writer is a Phd student and an alumnus of the Les Aspin Centre for Governance, US