Month: January 2011

I have been devotedly following the public pronouncements and utterances of our self proclaimed “younger” generation of politicians who are in their 50s going onwards, and I developed particular interest in the much decorated proposed amorphous political alliance between the three KKK, simply meaning the Kalenjin, Kikuyu and Kamba alliance as we are being made to believe, allegedly being advocated by the likes of Uhuru Kenyatta, William Ruto, and which is said to be the brainchild of the Vice President, Hon Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka.

This KKK reminds me of Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as The Klan, which was the name of three distinct past and present far right  organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as White supremacy, White nationalism, and anti-immigration historically expressed through terrorism. Since the mid-20th century, the KKK has also been anti-communist. The current manifestation is splintered into several chapters and is classified as a hate group.

It is thus my greatest shock to hear people in my own country, who consider themselves respected leaders, with titles such as the Vice President, Deputy Prime Minister and a suspended Minister, forming a political coalition with a name exactly the same as David Duke’s KKK. Kalonzo Musyoka, Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto would like to tell us that their KKK stands for Kikuyu, Kamba and Kalenjin. But the aims and aspirations of their KKK are not different from David Duke’s xenophobic organization. Both are just as chauvinistic. They are also both brazenly bigoted. The American organization is racist and the Kenya one is tribalist. So what is the difference? The American KKK seeks the supremacy of the White race headed by Anglo-Saxon Protestants. The Kenyan one wants to snatch political power in Kenya and establish a dictatorship headed by tribal chiefs. Honestly, I see no difference between the two.

Now is the time for us to ask ourselves hard questions. For instance, what are the leaders of the Kenya’s KKK alliance made of? Kenyans should just examine the political history of the leaders of the KKK alliance to get concrete evidence why it should be thrown into the dustbin of history. As the leader of the Orange Democratic Movement – Kenya (ODM-K), Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka has not sought permission from his party executive before pulling every member into an unholy marriage with the Deputy leader of ODM, William Ruto and the Chairman of Kanu, Uhuru Kenyatta. It was only a few years ago when Kalonzo was denouncing, in the strongest possible terms, the leadership of Ruto’s ODM and Kenyatta’s Kanu. What transformation has the Vice President undergone to see his 2007 strongest political enemies as his strongest bed fellows for the 2012 elections? Alternatively what changes have taken place in Ruto or Uhuru’s leadership to magnetize the Kamba leader?

Kalonzo has been a steadfast member of Kanu, Liberal Democratic Party, the National Rainbow Coalition, and ODM-K. All within a short period of time since he joined politics in 1983 when he unsuccessfully tried to represent the people of Kitui North in Parliament as a supporter of the dreaded one party political system in Kenya. Strictly speaking, Kalonzo Musyoka does not have a political philosophy he believes in. He changes his political colors like a chameleon. Today he is preparing Kenyans to vote for him as the next President in the 2012 elections as the leader of the KKK Alliance in the country. But will the others in this unholy marriage let him take the lead? Already media reports indicate that the other KKK leaders don’t trust him.

Even more important than that, will the Kamba people be prepared to be led by their noses by a man who wants to isolate them from the rest of Kenyans? Already ODM-K grass root leaders have started defecting from his party. Is this a sign of things to come?

It is always astonishing to see people who believe in no ideology at all ganging up together to form a political alliance based on tribal loyalty, when in fact they belong to three different tribes. None of the three leaders: Kalonzo, Kenyatta and Ruto have shown a remote enthusiasm to step down for the other, for the Presidency of Kenya after Kibaki. The only thing they have in common is the perception that they have the knack of putting their entire communities in their pockets. By the look of things the trio is in for a very big surprise.

The bulk of the new generation of voters, whose numbers run into millions and are strewn all over the country, has two things in common: Poverty and unemployment. They all correctly believe they are in that mess because of the greedy leadership of the likes of Ruto, Kalonzo and Kenyatta. They believe the only salvation they have is the use of the ballot, rather than the bullet, to bring about the desired change. After all, that method has succeeded in the most powerful country where a Black man was only considered a slave, and today he is the most powerful leader introducing changes that could only be confined to a dream world. Tunisia has just also offered this generation of voters another impetus to stand up against the status quo.

Uhuru Kenyatta’s fairy-tale is fundamentally similar to that of Kalonzo Musyoka. Though born with a silver spoon in his mouth, his only hope of succeeding Mwai Kibaki at State House is to be accepted as the official Presidential candidate of the KKK alliance. Uhuru incorrectly believes he is the definite leader of the Kikuyu people, who have supported his family for a long time, even before he was born. What Uhuru forgets, or is incapable of comprehending, is that the majority of the Kikuyus of today, who are the majority of young voters in Central Province believe the rich in their community have only become so by robbing their forefathers. (Mungiki is one such uprising against the tumbo kubwa in Central province). The majority of the rich Kikuyus are the children of home guards who killed a lot of Mau Mau in the struggle for liberation before independence. The majority of the poor among the Kikuyus today are children of the Mau Mau freedom fighters who, until today, have never seen the fruits of independence. In the next election they too see the power of the ballot bringing justice into the political scenario of the country. To them, this justice cannot be brought by Uhuru whose name in English means Independence. So far it’s only the snake rattler aka John Muchuki and political neophytes like Mututho who has come out strongly to anoint Uhuru Kenyatta.

Among the three KKK leaders, it is only William Ruto who has the support of his people in the Rift Valley. But if they remember the history of how Daniel Toroitich arap Moi, who made them back his handpicked Presidential candidature of Uhuru Kenyatta in 2002, led them to be isolated by the entire country, they may not support Ruto for long. After all the Kalenjins are the quickest people in changing their minds in the entire country. If you don’t believe me, ask Raila Odinga.

Above all, Kenyans are cleverer than what the KKK advocates think. Once Kenyans discern and see such tribal alliances, they will team together, even if it means voting for the devil so to annihilate such retrogressive and backward moves that glorify some and count others out! Kenya is for all 42 tribes. As my good friend Solomon Maingi posted in his Face Book page recently: KKK is just another Kuungana Kubaka Kenya, or if I may ask is it Kalonzo Katapita Katikati when Uhuru and Ruto will be cooling themselves off at the Hague prisons?

ICC Rulling on William Rutos application

A likely impossibility is always preferable to an unconvincing possibility, so the saying goes. In analyzing the current leadership structures, we realize that there is a lot of dynamism in place. Execution of different roles at various levels of leadership therefore requires a different approach.

Taking Kenya, for instance, the youth have always been referred to as leaders of tomorrow. This is totally fallacious because in the first place, nobody bothers to tell us when that tomorrow will come. Again there is genuine fear that when that tomorrow comes, the current youth won’t be youth any more.

Our current leaders need to borrow a leaf from Stephen R. Corey, the author of the seven Habit series – to redefine their role to society and to themselves. The catch phrase in the seven Habit series goes that, ‘’the essence of pro-activity lies in taking the responsibility and initiative to focus on the things in our lives we can actually do something about.’’

This means that our current leaders need a lot of self examination.

As youth aspiring to be successful leaders of today, we need to be in the limelight as active players in the running of our country.

For a long time, the Kenyan youth have been demobilized and depoliticed. Politics have been criminalized. We are told its dirty game. Yet there can be no development without politics.

Politics is the center of all development. If our fore fathers did not engage in politics to challenge the British colonizers, perhaps, I wouldn’t have been able to write what you are reading now.

Destructive politics and the culture of fear and silence instilled into us through decades of colonialism and dictatorship of the previous Governments and the omissions and commissions of the current Government are the main causes of the social and economic backwardness in Kenya today.

That’s why I fully support the need to inaugurate a forum that shall empower the youth in Kenya to chart a new political dispensation.

I concur with the former Sunday Nation columnist, Mutahi Ngunyi when he said that economic recovery is not our main priority, but governance is.

According to Ngunyi, we need to first address the problem of bad governance as a pre-requisite for economic recovery.

I would suggest that youth be part and parcel of fixing the governance question, as well as champions in the economic recovery project.

Towards this goal, we need to carefully assess the current leadership with a view to avoiding repeating past and current mistakes.

We need to be at the center of politics. We need to go to the people and be part of them, share their situations, plan with them and move at their pace.

In other words, we need to assess and prioritize issues with the people we are leading. For dynamism is a reality that we need to acknowledge as an ingredient of effective governance!

All we need to do is to be part of today’s leadership instead of waiting for the ubiquitous tomorrow. As the Waswahili put it, leo ni leo, asemaye kesho ni muongo!