SIMAMA KENYA

It seemed Jimmy Kibaki had thrown in the towel when he suddenly quit last Monday as patron of Simama Kenya.

Only a few days earlier, President Kibaki’s oldest son had tried to sack the movement’s treasurer Tom Namwamba because of his involvement with the “No” campaign, only to be stopped in his tracks when the latter contemptuously dismissed the move.

Dr Namwamba countered by pointing out that Mr Kibaki had absolutely no powers to sack anyone as he was only an honorary patron. He announced that as an official and founder, he was the one with the power to dismiss the patron.

Mr Kibaki got the message and swiftly announced his resignation, leading to knowing looks amongst those who said that the President’s son could not stand the heat in the kitchen.

Jimmy Kibaki has been the public face and driving force behind Simama Kenya, a youth empowerment movement with undisguised political aims focusing largely on his own suspected political ambitions and the bigger goal of influencing the Kibaki succession.

Awkward position

The fallout with Dr Namwamba was sudden, but hardly unexpected after the treasurer took on the role of director of the “No” campaign secretariat, placing the younger Kibaki in an awkward position as his father is strongly backing the “Yes” team.

Dr Namwamba dedicated his new book titled Critical Thinking to Jimmy Kibaki, celebrating the President’s most politically visible son as a humble and key promoter of the youth agenda. Now he is scathing in attacks on Jimmy, whom he dismisses as an elitist out of touch with aims and aspirations of the youth, and who “just wants to us to pursue his political aims”.

Other Simama Kenya officials, including chairman Zablon Mwangi Muthaiga, chief executive Maureen Achillo and secretary-general Kenneth Ngumbau Mulwa are cautious not to step into the row, but it is clear they still regard Mr Kibaki highly. So without Mr Kibaki at the helm and bankrolling its activities, will Simama Kenya die out? The other officials say he may have stepped down as patron, but remains an integral member of the outfit. Mr Kibaki himself feels it is all so much ado about nothing.

“Simama remains with a chairman and other members of the executive in place. We will remain active and after the referendum, we will be doing a lot of grassroots mobilisation,” he told the Sunday Nation from his private office in Gigiri. When asked why he uses the term “we” when he is no longer the patron, he points out that he is still very much a part of Simama Kenya.

So why did he quit so suddenly? Mr Kibaki explains that he saw no need to get into a dirty and protracted fight over a position that is honorary. But then there might have been a lot of infighting if he remained active and drive Simama Kenya to support the “Yes” campaign while Dr Namwamba is director of the “No” secretariat.

Then of course there is the issue of Mr Kibaki’s own political designs and whether the fallout in Simama Kenya brings his ambitions to a shuddering halt. “I’ve said again and again that I’m not interested in elective politics,” he says. But then his constant forays in Othaya constituency have created the impression that he is working towards taking over the seat when his father retires.

His response to that is an emphatic No, explaining that his only interest in the constituency is only to drive his father’s development programme since the President is tied down by weighty matters of state. He goes on to offer that the problem with Kenya today is that everyone goes into politics for personal gain rather than service.

Another problem, he says, is that the business community that controls the national economy shuns politics or is never called upon to contribute with its knowledge, skills and ideas. Simama Kenya, he says, was formed to change that by working to empower the youth economically with support from the business community.

He decries a trend where such initiatives must have a political tag attached to it, which makes the business people who otherwise would make useful contributions shy away. That is a big contradiction because almost from inception, Mr Kibaki has driven a political agenda for Simama Kenya.

In rallies across the country, he has urged the youth to come together and make a big impact come the next elections. So how then can he decry the political tag? He responds that youth empowerment must of necessity be tied to politics. The youth constitute a major voting bloc that can dictate the political agenda if united behind one platform that is free of the usual ethnic loyalties.

The youth of Nyanza, he says, do not necessarily have to be tied to ODM or the youth of Central Province tied to PNU. They can come together and drive a national agenda for the good of all rather than dragged down by ethnic politics.

However, Mr Kibaki’s reasoning is undermined by the fact that Simama Kenya has also entangled itself in the divisive political feuds at the national level. At one point it controversially voiced support for Higher Education minister William Ruto, a move seen as signalling President Kibaki’s support for the renegade ODM leader in his war with Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

The movement has also sometimes been seen to support the so-called KKK axis associated with Mr Ruto, Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka and Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta. “We don’t believe in ethnic alliances,” he says, on an issue the younger Kibaki clearly does not want to dwell on.

But he readily agrees that Simama Kenya has also endorsed the presidential candidacy of Saboti MP Eugene Wamalwa. The push for Wamalwa, largely driven by political activist Tony Gachoka, however, seems to have run out of steam or buried in the dust of the bigger fights on the national stage.

It remains to be seen as 2012 approaches whether President Kibaki’s son seriously drives the campaign for Wamalwa, a development that would suggest his father’s tacit backing. According to Dr Namwamba, Mr Kibaki was not the founder or driving force behind Simama Kenya.

He says he founded the movement and was introduced to Jimmy by Mutito MP Kiema Kilonzo in July last year. Following a series of talks, it was agreed that Dr Namwamba run the secretariat and they opened an office on Westlands Road. According to some sources, Mr Kibaki has never been to the secretariat.