In this era of openness and transparency and public vetting, it is naturally right that all would-be presidential candidates tell us more about themselves – and Uhuru Kenyatta has apparently decided to lead the way.
Mr Kenyatta took the opportunity of his 50th birthday last week to set up a website devoted to celebrating his life so far, clearly hoping that you, the reader, will celebrate it with him. All I can say is, Good grief! What a mistake THAT was on the part of his marketing gurus! For the sad truth about Uhuru’s past half-century is that he has virtually nothing of note to recall.
A number of prominent Kenyans have in recent years published their autobiographies, full of hundreds of pages of fascinating stories and detailed insights into political affairs. Other similar tomes are expected. But Uhuru’s published lifeline appears remarkable for one thing only – the poverty of its content. It seems to consist of a few bare details, most of them an attempt to bask in other people’s glory.
On the website, you are invited to “Click through the decades”. OK. 1960s. October 26, 1961, Uhuru is born and named “in anticipation for Kenya’s upcoming independence”. Next entry – more than two years later, December 12, 1963 – “Kenya attains her independence”. Next entry, October 26, 1968, Uhuru celebrates his seventh birthday at State House. (Well done!)
These events, no achievement at all on the part of Mr Kenyatta, are the vehicle to allow the accompanying four pictures of ‘me and my dad’ – just in case the significance of Who I Am has passed you by. And that’s it for the 1960s. On to the 1970s, which start with another picture of ‘me and my dad’, apparently in 1971 – before a sad one, a funeral picture, after Uhuru unfortunately lost his father in 1978. We can sympathise with that.
The 1970s covered Mr Kenyatta’s schooldays. Only two things about him are noted in this entire decade. One, the young Uhuru was a winger in the school rugby team, and two, he won the school history prize at A-level in 1979. There’s a picture of him receiving it. And the prize is being presented by then vice-president Mwai Kibaki. Top connections, eh?
On to the 1980s. Woohoo! That must have been a difficult one for the website planners. Very confusing. It begins with “1979-1980 Upon return to Kenya, Uhuru worked as a teller at the Kenya Commercial Bank, Kipande House branch”. But wait a minute – upon return from where did Uhuru get this luminous job? Oh, next entry. It seems to be in the wrong order. “Uhuru joined Amherst College [USA] to study Political Science and Economics”.
But he only left school in 1979 – so if he worked as a teller from 1979 to 1980 “upon return to Kenya”, when did he attend Amherst College? No year of entry is noted. No year of exit. And, astoundingly, that’s all we hear about Amherst College. How long was Mr Kenyatta there? When did he leave? What did he achieve there? Did he graduate, and with what?
At the risk of sounding like Donald Trump banging on about Obama’s birth certificate, wouldn’t it be nice to see Mr Kenyatta’s college graduation certificate? There are two more entries for the 1980s, along with a picture of Uhuru sitting on a motorbike. One is “Uhuru starts his own company, Wilham Kenya Limited, where he used to personally pick up and transport horticulture for export on his pickup truck”.
Wow. Fantastic. Imagine that. Uhuru driving a pickup! And starting a company! I wonder how hard he had to struggle to get a loan from the bank to do that? Hmm. Final entry for the 1980s – “1989 Uhuru joins politics”. Really? Doing what? And where? Nobody else knew anything about this, and the website is silent on detail.
In fact, in the absence of any further information, this website entry can only be described as misleading. As far as the record shows, Mr Kenyatta’s first personal political involvement did not come until eight years later, in 1997, when he became chairman of Kanu in his home area. The same year, he stood for election to the Gatundu South parliamentary seat. He lost and, in a fit of pique, quit politics.
Mr Kenyatta’s eventual entry to parliamentary politics did not come until 2001, and that was through nomination by then President Daniel arap Moi. The following year, Mr Kenyatta stood for president. He lost. But finally, in 2002 – just eight years and 10 months ago – Mr Kenyatta was elected MP for Gatundu South.
Anyway, back to the website. Mr Kenyatta gets married in 1991 and campaigns in 1992 for Kenneth Matiba, of whom there is a picture, superimposed over the picture of a large crowd – all totally unrelated to Mr Kenyatta, of course, but he hopes you get the idea. Mr Kenyatta sells Wilham in 1994 and is appointed to head the Kenya Tourism Board in 1999.
In other words, there is hardly any clue as to how Mr Kenyatta spent his time or how he was gainfully employed for nearly two decades, 1980-1999. So we move on to the 2000s. We start with a 2001 picture of Mr Kenyatta being “received” after his nomination as an MP by later vice-president Kijana Wamalwa. Wamalwa wasn’t vice-president at the time of the picture, contrary to the caption on the website. But it sounds good.
After losing the 2002 presidential election, Mr Kenyatta became opposition leader by virtue of heading Kanu, thanks to Mr Moi. (Sadly, no picture of Mr Moi. Perhaps that’s a connection Mr Kenyatta would like us to forget.) Next, in 2007, Mr Kenyatta “supported Mwai Kibaki’s presidential bid”, and in between that and meeting Nelson Mandela (cue picture) became deputy prime minister and minister for finance.
And that’s it – a litany of unaccounted-for years interspersed with pictures of other, more impressive, people – Jomo Kenyatta, Mwai Kibaki, Kenneth Matiba, Kijana Wamalwa, Nelson Mandela – people whose radiance Uhuru Kenyatta obviously hopes will reflect on him. We certainly need to know what there is to know about our presidential candidates. In his own case, Mr Kenyatta has now told us: Not a lot.
The writer is a freelance journalist
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