Uhuru should master art of patience

Kipkoech Tanui What would happen if, like Mr Uhuru Kenyatta, we were all to bang tables when we disagree with each other?
Should we have banged tables when he gave us a Budget with comical errors? Should those who protested when he was handpicked to run on a Kanu ticket for the presidency in 2002 have called a press conference and banged tables?
Should those stunned when in 2007 he walked from Opposition benches, where it was a pillar of our democracy by keeping the Government in check and serving as a Government-in-waiting, into the bosom of Kibaki’s Party of National Unity, have done the same?
Waited too long
But the only reason Uhuru acted the way he did was to tap into and invest in some ethnic votes at the centre of the Kenyan house, and next year he expects PNU to pay back and he has already invoiced the party.
It could thus explain why he threw a tantrum; he has waited too long in the queue and is losing patience.
But he must be told this no longer the attribute of a leader, unlike in 1963.
His father, Kenya’s founding president, waited in detention for seven years; Moi was overlooked as Vice President for over a decade; and President Kibaki waited in the wings for years before his turn came. They exhibited calmness and patience, and those unfortunately, who appeared in a rush were jumped over.
We must remember there is no one bound by contractual arrangement to agree with the other.
Not even President Kibaki — whom Uhuru respects these days just like he did when he was a boy and the President was visiting his father for a cup of tea and other favours — whose war with Raila Son of Jomo was fighting.
But by banging the table against Raila, who he claimed influenced the ruling by Speaker in his ruling on the unconstitutionality of Kibaki’s four nominees, we now know the disorder in this Grand Coalition.
This is because Uhuru is supposed to be one of Raila’s deputies.
Uhuru’s feat of anger probably betrayed his other side, but we must remind him that having stepped forward to seek to rule us, Kenyans have a right to audit his actions.
Uhuru may not know it, but if he were, in the most unlikely of circumstances, to beat his wife, as a matter of public interest we would demand full disclosure from him. We would also, if there turned out to be any veracity to the claims, demand that he step aside and declare him unelectable.
Why? Because the integrity and moral standards of the office he is seeking, first held by his loving father, and secondly by the former President who picked on him as his preferred successor, deserves better.
It does not matter how aggrieved Uhuru was, for the true value of a politician lies in what they do in moments of adversity.
Probably Uhuru forgets that banging tables is no different from, and could just be the early stages of what must have been mutating in Muammar Gadaffi’s till, when he threatened to turn Libya into rivers of blood rather than cede power.
Presumed innocent
Uhuru does not look to me like he can do some of these things, even though he is on the list of Ocampo Six.
As I argued a fortnight ago, until they are proven guilty, the Ocampo Six are presumed innocent by our laws. Therefore, Raila erred by saying if they are not put in we will have no peace next year.
This is probably what angered Uhuru, and being human, one cannot discount the fact he believes a Chief Justice who owes his seat to Kibaki (read PNU) is likely to be more accommodating to post-election suspects if a local tribunal ever takes off.
Maybe this is what hurt Uhuru — seeing Marende’s ruling as a stumbling block to his dream.
But Kibaki will first have to outwit or defy the ICC, or The Hague rejects the Chief Prosecutor’s plea for summonses to appear against Uhuru and the other five.
We must admire Uhuru for the way he managed to shake off the tag of ‘project’ after 2002, and the way he exhibited nerve and fervour as Leader of the Official Opposition, especially when he dismissed Kibaki as ‘hands off, eyes off...everything off".
But now he has walked into the Lion’s lair and is struggling to roar like the lion.
He is quickly turning into someone else’s ‘project’ and therein lies his soft underbelly in next year’s election. At this rate he may soon start calling us ‘m*** ya kuku’ given nature of his current tutelage.
At a peri-urban rally, which is obviously cosmopolitan, he switches between the Kikuyu language — to insult those he dislikes like Raila — and Swahili with so much ease as his father did when taking on Raila’s father, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga.
Unfortunately, the era in which his father reigned and the reality of modern day politics are different.
Mr Uhuru, it does not matter if Kibaki is circumcised as you told us. You cannot walk back into State House by borrowing your father’s diction and ‘dubbing’ Kibaki’s notes on power.
The era of bakora, rungu, flywhisk and tutawashiakashaka (we shall crash you!) politics is gone.
The writer is Managing Editor, Daily Editions, at The Standard.
ktanui@standardmedia.co.ke