Uhuru presidency is a dream come true

By Paul Amina

Ten Years down the  line,  the outgoing Deputy Prime Minister, Uhuru Kenyatta’s presidency is a dream come true and the person who takes the credit is none other than the self-proclaimed professor of politics, former President Daniel arap Moi,

The son of Moi’s predecessor, Jomo Kenyatta was nominated  to parliament  on the eve of 2002 general  elections and  named flag bearer of the then ruling party, Kenya African National Union (KANU). Uhuru could not make it in the elections against a formidable  opposition presidential candidate, Mwai Kibaki backed by Kanu rebels led by Raila  Amolo Odinga.

Indeed, the best way to celebrate the belated victory was to make the event colourful, pompous and different from previous occasions marred by chaos or shrouded in secrecy and controversy. The last inauguration in 2007 was held in   State House at sunset minus foreign guests.

The elaborate  preparations for Uhuru’s  installation on today as the  fourth Kenyan president  matches  no other inauguration  in the  country’s history save for the  British handing over  to  his  father as the Prime  Minister fifty years ago.

The ceremony takes place after weeklong deliberations on a petition filed by Prime Minister, Raila in the Supreme Court   challenging the credibility of the   election of Uhuru as president on March 4, 2013. The court upheld the verdict of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) that declared Uhuru the winner of the presidential ballot.

Beneficiary of political parties fall out

President  Kibaki  steps down on Tuesday after serving  for two terms  of five years each  following which  the  constitution bans the  holder of the  office  from seeking  another term. The  Without a ceremony, the  National  Accord  on Peace  and Reconciliation brokered by former UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan that  created  the  Grand Coalition Government also lapses and the  document   buried in the  dustbin of history.

The president elect  is the  biggest beneficiary  of a fall  in political parties  including  the  Orange  Democratic Movement  (ODM) led  by  the outgoing  Prime Minister, Raila Odinga. Uhuru adopted ODM orphans that include his deputy, William Ruto, former ministers Charity Ngilu, Najib Balala, Joseph Nyagah. 

Uhuru enjoyed  the  support  of  Moi  and  Kibaki in his  campaigns  with  the latter  reciprocating the gesture  of Kanu in the  2007  general elections. Kanu under Uhuru did not field a presidential candidate in the polls.

Little known to  many, the  spotlight on   Tuesday’s  event  held under the  new  Constitution  will be  on the record breaker President Kibaki, former  President  Moi and  headline grabber  Raila.

Kibaki’s service

With fifty years of uninterrupted public service, President Kibaki surpasses the record of his predecessor Moi of 47 years as the longest serving parliamentarian in the country, the continent and the last lot amongst surviving first parliamentarians in the inaugural parliament in 1963.  But Moi’s record of 24 years as president remains intact. 

Like them or hate them the  trio  political figures may not have  been  the best of friends or  worst enemies in their  tenure but their political   contributions have shaped the  country’s political landscape that  cannot be downplayed  by  historians.

In times of crisis and for the sake of survival one emerged as a convenient ally of the other.  To a large extent, it has been Raila whose support has been sought by either Kibaki or Moi in the last twenty years and vice versa. 

Many  will  recall that Kibaki stood by Moi  when a group of  Kikuyu tribal chauvinists  campaigned  for the  constitution to be changed  to stop  the then  Vice President from  succeeding the  ailing president Kenyatta  in the event of death.

Moi escaped the plot, succeeded Kenyatta and rewarded Kibaki with the number two slot. The duo fell out and Kibaki  was  demoted  to Health  ministry in the  formation of  a  new government elected  without a  ballot   but through  lining up  behind candidates in 1988.

Kibaki emerged as the official parliamentary opposition leader in 1997 in a hang parliament in which Moi had only four majority seats. Raila  came in handy as the  saviour of Moi  who with a  minority  in the  legislature  could  have faced a  no  confidence  vote  by his  political adversaries.

Raila disbanded the National Development Party (NDP) and joined Kanu and became the party’s secretary general in the merger.  The marriage between  Moi and Raila  was  a short-lived  affair after  the  president nominated the  son of his predecessor, Uhuru  and  named him  as his successor.  

LDP and NAK memorandum

Infuriated by Moi’s decision,  a  handful  rebels including  Raila  quit  Kanu  and  joined the opposition  where Kibaki was proclaimed  the  coalition’s  torch bearer.  He was the hero of the  moment  but cracks within the   triumphant National Rainbow  Coalition (NARC)shredded  the  alliance  before  ink  dried  on the  Memorandum of Understanding  (MOU) between LDP and NAK  on the sharing  of public service posts.

Wrangles  over the  unfulfilled promises  ensued endlessly  and the  delivery of the  constitution  became  a sensitive, divisive and elusive  in the  years that  followed. LDP cabinet  ministers   were purged  from the  government as  part  of a  retaliation to the  vote  in a  referendum  against the  doctored draft  constitution.   

At  last, Kenya  has  a new  revolutionary constitution  not that  the  powers-that-be  were for it but the  National  Accord  conditioned  delivery of the  constitution  in a  raft  of  reform proposals to be undertaken as part of national healing  and reconciliation.

Kibaki and Raila were  signatories to the  Accord  that  brought an end to  post-election violence in which  more  than 1,000 people perished, property  of unknown value destroyed and  nearly half  million  souls displaced.

With Raila elbowed out of mainstream politics and new alliances emerging, what is the next move for the political commodity leaders peddled years on end for unspecified financial and material gains?

The writer is a freelance Journalist. Email:paminao@yahoo com