King's State House banquet and absent aspiring Mount Kenya kingpin

DP Rigathi Gachagua meets King Charles III at the Mtongwe Naval Base in Likoni, Mombasa, on November 2, 2023. [FB, Rigathi Gachagua] King Charles III's official visit to Kenya was memorable in several ways. It was the king's first official visit outside Europe and the first in Britain's vast former 'empire' where the sun had problems setting. It started setting when white 'colonists' in North America refused to pledge loyalty to England. The visit also attracted positive attention to King Charles to Kenya's President William Ruto, a man who would not mind kingly attributes. Charles and Dr Ruto, the President revealed, discussed the penchant for Kenyan leaders to seek recognition as regional 'kingpins'. The one person aspiring to be a regional 'kingpin' is Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, Riggy G. The attention relieved them of their individual domestic troubles. Dr Ruto tries to balance Riggy G's political interests with those of Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga. Mr Gachagua appeared to lose in Ruto's emerging political acrobatics as the State House banquet showed. Since a number of national grandees were missing in the banquet, questions as to what may have been going on arose. Was the 'missing' politically contrived to boost some players while cutting others to appropriate political sizes? The banquet probably boosted Raila's image as he seemed to co-host the function and have good time with Charles. Similarly, Tess Mudavadi had a big evening sitting next to Queen Camilla and clinking glasses with real British royalty as hubby Musalia looked politically dignified. In addition, some of Kenya's would be aristocrats, whether new or existing, and assorted 'grandees' were openly invisible either because dinner organisers forgot to invite them or because they declined the invitations. Among prominent 'invisibles' at the banquet were the Kenyattas, Kenya's first 'first' family which has produced two presidents. Ruto blundered if he did not invite the Kenyatta family. If he invited Uhuru, then it is for Uhuru to explain his failure to show up in such a function. The next 'invisible' grandee was Riggy G, who happened to be in Europe. The deputy president is a man in search of acceptability as a leader at two levels. He wants people of the Mountain to recognise him as their natural leader because Uhuru's time is up and no one else has taken the position. This search for acceptability seems to be based on a myth that a people must have one leader, at times called 'kingpin', whether they want it or not. The myth negates the reality of Gikuyu people, from the time of Iregi, when they rejected the rule by one man and embraced governance through councils and collegial engagements that stress justice, fairness, maturity, and consultation. Gachagua, through his utterances and actions, appears to have problems displaying those four qualities which then make his acceptability difficult. Besides, other would-be leaders of the Mountain have little time for his dreams. He also expects acceptability as national leader outside the Mountain zone. At the national level, he competes with Mudavadi and Raila as possible stand-ins for Ruto. The two regional kingpins seem to have national political edge over Gachagua and were conspicuous at State House eating with Charles. Gachagua suffers self-inflicted pain that partly accounts for him missing his goal of being acceptable as leader of the Mountain. He boastfully trumpets his intentions, even when they are not appropriate. His public announcement that he wants to talk to Uhuru about unity, for instance, sounded strange given his bad language that appear to belittle the former president. While Uhuru has been president, Gachagua aspires to become one. It is not certain that he will achieve that dream in 2032 unless serious changes in his approach to the Mountain and the country take place. His chosen advisors apparently fail to tell him that he is politically so naked that he is likely to miss more than the banquet. His chances of being accepted as leader of the Mountain and the country increasingly diminish with his every verbal blunder.

King's State House banquet and absent aspiring Mount Kenya kingpin

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