KKK Krisis

As the debate on the constitution rages amid political realignments, Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka, Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and Agriculture Minister William Ruto have to contend with increasingly being torn apart by the No-Yes divide.

But the million-dollar question is, what exactly went wrong? Details emerging from the horse-trading gone wrong shed light on why the trio, who have been bosom buddies for close to a year under an alliance dubbed the Kalenjin, Kikuyu and Kamba (KKK) find themselves pulling in different directions.

Whereas Ruto has come out strongly to lead the onslaught against the Proposed Constitution, Kalonzo has backed the document, while Uhuru has chosen to campaign for neither side after his initial support.

Ruto’s position is that amendments should be made on the document before the referendum.

Although Kalonzo has backed the draft, he has also supported Ruto’s call for amendments. However, Kalonzo, as a Vice-President and staunch Christian, has been torn between the President’s strong push for the document and the Christian clerics opposition to it.

Drastic turnaround

The three, leaders in their respective political parties — ODM-K, PNU and ODM — were part of the political team that shepherded the review process, and specifically Ruto and Uhuru, in and out of Naivasha, were part of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Constitutional Review (PSC).

Their drastic turnaround is now being viewed by some as based on fears that the New Constitution may scuttle their attempts to craft an alliance amongst their communities as a vehicle around which to marshal troops for the 2012 Kibaki succession battle against ODM.

The trio accused their critics over the KKK tag that attracted severe criticism.

But Ruto says he opposes the Draft on principle since the devolution model in the Proposed Constitution is inadequate because the counties will be too weak to counter the central government. He instead wants inclusion of regional governments.

Initially, Kalonzo and Uhuru appeared to have no problem with the document until Ruto and a group of his Rift Valley political leaders, with the support of a gaggle of Coast political leaders, insisted that failure to include regional governments was not acceptable to them.

Interviews with various players indicate Kalonzo and Uhuru seem to have decided to keep Ruto company, in apparent recognition that he and his rebel wing of ODM that he leads may have lost their push for regional governments on account of siding with PNU against ODM.

"ODM wanted a hybrid and a three-tier system that featured a President, a PM, and regional governments. But a day before we went to Naivasha, the Cabinet consensus group comprising James Orengo (Lands), Musalia Mudavadi (Local Government), Uhuru (Finance) and Moses Wetang’ula (Foreign) had not agreed on some issues," Assistant Minister Mwangi Kiunjuri, who is also a PSC member, told The Sunday Standard.

As a result, ODM opted to sponsor a strong presidency as a bait for PNU to compromise on a three-tier government with regions to check the Executive.

"PNU had up to that point objected to the three-tier system, fearing it was a clever scheme to sneak majimbo into the constitution," says Kiunjuri.

In an interview, Kiunjuri said PNU, still smarting from the ODM surprise, had no problem with one centre of power, and quickly dropped its opposition to regions, with safeguards against forcible evictions complemented by a powerful Bill of Rights.

"It is Ruto who proposed the powerful presidency, and was seconded by Musalia Mudavadi and Martha Karua. It is only Garsen MP Danson Mungatana, Isaac Ruto (Chepalungu) and I who opposed the proposal. But in the spirit of consensus, we were outnumbered. In the end, the Naivasha consensus settled on a strong presidential system, with 18 regional governments to check the Executive. This was acceptable to all and was what we took to back to CoE in February," Kiunjuri said.

Presidential system

But Ruto is categorical on his position: "When we agreed on the pure presidential system of government at Naivasha, we wanted it to go hand-in-hand with strong regional governments that would counter-balance powers of the presidency."

However, the proponents of the regional governments, mostly from the Rift Valley and a few from the Coast, led by Ruto now accuse the CoE of "provocatively" overturning the Naivasha consenus when it submitted the Draft to Parliament without the regions.

However, during a live interview with KTN on Wednesday evening, Karua said the regions were dropped when it became apparent that the PSC might never agree on either the number or the boundaries.

"The CoE went out of its way to meet the PSC over regions at Karen before publishing the Draft submitted to Parliament. We could not agree on the number of regions and boundaries," said Karua.

She explained that PSC settled on the least controversial 46 districts the country had in 1992, plus Nairobi, as the starting point for counties as devolution units. CoE and PSC, and Parliament had move to forward as the review calendar is tight," Karua said.

Although most MPs in Central Province have voiced their support for the draft, Uhuru is torn between keeping his political ties with Ruto without losing his home ground support come the next election.

Ruto’s dalliance with Kalonzo and Uhuru and against his party leader and Prime Minister Raila Odinga put ODM in an awkward position throughout the negotiations on the Draft.

When he needed crucial support for the inclusion of regions, MPs from central Kenya — most of who have had their kin evicted from Rift Valley during land clashes — withheld their support.

The pro-Raila Rift Valley politicians in ODM are using this to portray Ruto as insisting on an alliance with an unreliable political ally.

Allies of the three politicians were quick to dispel fears that the alliance may not hold after the referendum.

"Ruto and Uhuru are not opposed to the Draft, but they are calling for dialogue and a better position. KKK cannot die, ours is a unity of purpose. In Kenya’s politics today, no one can become a President without forming alliances," said Kutuny.

He argued that KKK had served the protagonists in the Rift Valley well, saying their coming together had eased ethnic tension in the region.

However, Kamukunji MP, Simon Mbugua, a vocal KKK enthusiast, said the alliance would be strained by the demand for regions by Rift Valley politicians.

Regional governments

"It will be difficult for us to support regional governments, which we fear is another name for majimbo," he said. Machakos Town MP Victor Munyaka said despite Ruto and Kalonzo being in different camps, the alliance will still hold. "Their 2012 plan is still intact because the referendum is not part of the succession battle."

Said Dr Munyaka: "Ruto and Kalonzo are a vibrant pair despite being in different camps."

However, a close aide of Uhuru, who did not wish to be named said: "Uhuru is opposed to an acrimonious campaign that will split the country further before he 2007 wounds have healed"