The Group of Seven is a tribal alliance in all but name

By MAKAU MUTUA
Posted  Saturday, June 4 2011 at 18:14

First, it was called KKK. It then metamorphosed into PNU/KKK. A little later, it was registered as the PNU Alliance. Then they launched the G7 Alliance. Don’t be fooled.

A dog by any other name is still a dog. Which begs the question — why all the shifting word-smithing?

The brain trust behind the PNU/KKK Alliance believes that it can cloak its true intentions behind the facade of a different name.

It’s called “hiding in plain sight”. That’s because the Group of Seven is nothing but a PNU/KKK mirage.

I want to peel this onion to expose its true genetic fingerprint. My intention is to unveil the duplicitous “watermelons” that claim one thing, but do another.

No politician wants to be accused of being a tribalist, or an ethnic chauvinist. But the truth is that most of them are incurable ethnic demagogues.

Virtually all of them have ascended to power by playing the ethnic card. That’s the only sure thing in Kenyan politics.

The word “alliance” in politics is a euphemism for an “alliance of tribal elites”.

This point is inarguable. Why should people who aspire to lead our country seek to bunch Kenyans into “blocs” of flocks?

Isn’t that an admission they are unable to mobilise individual voters on issues rather than on tribal loyalties?

Let’s admit it — our politicians suffer from poverty of ideas. That’s why they move in “tribal caravans”.

Let’s go back to the G7. The inner core of the G7 is the KKK Alliance. Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka, Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and Eldoret North MP William Ruto came together to stop Prime Minister Raila Odinga from capturing the State House.

That fact — as they have themselves admitted — is incontestable. By itself, that plot evidences a bankruptcy of ideas.

Politicians who are brought together by what or who they hate don’t deserve our votes. Zilch. How can your political strategy for the country be driven by the agenda to stop one single man?

We don’t want to know who you hate, but what you can do for your country if we give you keys to the State House.

The G7 assumes that the Kikuyu, Kamba, and Kalenjin groups can ram down the country’s throat a leader chosen by three tribal barons — Mr Musyoka, Mr Kenyatta, and Mr Ruto.

They plan it to be one of them. By this calculus, no other individuals or groups matter. As some in the KKK Alliance have said, they have the numbers.

Hypocritical euphemisms

However, the KKK tag became a liability. That’s why it turned into the PNU Alliance and now the G7. These are just hypocritical euphemisms to pad their numbers and hide their true intentions.

That’s why the G7 includes the Luhya, the coastal region, and northern Kenya. But these latter additions are nothing but accoutrements for the KKK Alliance.

Let’s look at some of the new “tribal” additions and their “barons” in the G7. Few people believe, for example, that Saboti MP Eugene Wamalwa is a serious politician. But the KKK Alliance is propping him up in hopes of dividing the Luhya vote.

I wish him luck because Local Government Minister Musalia Mudavadi has most of that vote in his pocket. It’s going to be an uphill task to undercut ODM in Luhya country.

So why is the KKK Alliance pursuing a quixotic venture? It’s all about appearances — to give the false impression that the KKK is not just about the Kikuyu, Kamba and Kalenjin. The same is true of Tourism Minister Najib Balala. He’s the “coastal flower”.

You might wonder why Mr Wamalwa and Mr Balala are allowing themselves to be played like the violin. Mr Balala has had his own well publicised disagreements with Mr Odinga.

Mr Wamalwa is a “young buck” trying to make a name for himself. If the KKK Alliance wins in 2012, he could become the most powerful politico in Luhya country. He’s rolling the dice. Mr Balala has long fancied himself the king of the Coast.

An Odinga defeat in 2012 would establish Mr Balala as the unquestioned “overlord of Muslims” and the coastal region.

But this is playing Russian roulette. A defeat of the KKK Alliance would send him into political oblivion. But he’s decided to take his chances.

The great “unknown unknown” is what the International Criminal Court will do with Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto.

If the ICC takes these pivotal KKK members down, Mr Musyoka will be orphaned. He can only benefit from their political demise if they openly endorse him and ask their ethnic minions to support him. But it’s not clear whether that would be enough.

Competing interests

I have a feeling that the KKK Alliance will fall apart if Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto are formally charged by the ICC in September.

There are too many competing interests among the Kikuyu and the Kalenjin to hold the groups together without Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto. Mr Musyoka may be the loser in this case.

The bottom line is that the G7 has nothing to do with what’s good for Kenya. No tribal alliance of elites can ever be good for the country. That’s why the G7 is a retardant of the national project.

It looks deceptively inclusive, but it’s actually a corrosive and corrupt instrumentality that will further fragment our country.

It will heighten ethnic tensions by isolating the Luo — and possibly the Luhya — from the body politic.

I hope that religious groups, civil society and Kenyans of goodwill will press for the disbandment of the G7 hydra.

Makau Mutua is Dean and SUNY Distinguished Professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo Law School and Chair of the KHRC.