By JULIUS SIGEI jsigei@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Saturday, December 24 2011 at 19:43
Posted Saturday, December 24 2011 at 19:43
You could have heard a pin drop as President Moi and his Vice-President faced off in a tense moment that Kenyans would not have imagined possible only days before.
It was, indeed, a rare occasion as the President’s long-suffering and stoic lieutenant finally stood up against his boss.
The scene was the infamous March 2002 Kanu Kasarani delegates’ meeting, referred by wags as kichinjio (slaugherhouse) at which President Moi sidestepped Prof George Saitoti in favour of Mr Uhuru Kenyatta with the famous phrase “Nyamaza profesa” (silence, professor) as the former sought to impose Mr Kenyatta as the Kanu flagbearer.
Prof Saitoti revisited this lowest moment of his life with palpable emotion betrayed by a vein on his forehead during an interview on the sidelines of a Maasai professionals meeting at Lake Elementaita Country Lodge last weekend.
“If I had been given an equal opportunity there is no doubt I would have emerged the winner,” he said and added: “In the history of nations there is no country which has denied its vice-president an opportunity to succeed the president unless the latter is defending his seat.”
One gets the feeling that his new-found energy is driven by the desire to make up for the loss 10 years ago.
Read my lips
The MP, who for more than a decade served Mr Moi faithfully with a curt “read my lips” reply to the prying press who sought to know what the professor of mathematics had up his sleeve, had finally opened up, spoiling for a political fight.
So what strategy does he have to outwit his competitors who have larger ethnic bases?
“My tribe is Kenya. In the new constitutional dispensation, the presidential race will not be based on tribal blocks, but experience and professionalism,” he said.
The Internal Security minister flaunted his long public service career, saying it would be a big loss for the country if he was not given an opportunity to lead.
Reflective of his passion for the highest office in the land, the Kajiado North MP spoke in uncharacteristically strong language, telling the professionals it would be selfish of him “if I carry my vast experience into the coffin”.
He said the doubting Thomases will be surprised because he will not relent in his quest for the State House job.
He said he was a reformer, arguing that he brought fundamental changes in the ministries of Education, Finance, and now in the Internal Security docket where, he added, he has “helped reduced crime greatly”.
He, at the same time, said that while political parties were important, personality and issues would matter a lot in next year’s elections.
“My campaign will be issue-based and I will not engage in sideshows touching on other hopefuls,” he said.
Projecting an image of a more emboldened Prof Saitoti, he told his colleagues in the PNU Alliance, Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka and Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, that he would not be part of a flawed nomination.
“I would never want to go the 2002 way. The process is as important as the result,” he said of the expected face off between him and like-minded politicians in the PNU alliance.
The professionals were from Kajiado, Narok, Samburu, Laikipia and Baringo counties.
The more than 300 professionals resolved to send a delegation to Permanent Secretary, Prof James Kiyiapi, to ask him to step down for Prof Saitoti as the community “would not send two warriors to the battle field”.
“We shall have Saitoti’s campaign as the sole rallying point from our community. The community will craft a way to have our own,” said Mr Joel ole Leshau, a Kenyatta University don from Kajiado County.
Prof Saioti told his competitors to expect the “mother of all battles” in the new year, saying he has lined up countrywide meetings to meet professionals, women’s and youth groups in all the 47 counties.
His aides say the minister has embarked on a head hunting mission to identify regional kingpins in every part of the country to shore up his campaign.
The Gilgil meeting was seen as a bold step by the minister to stamp his authority on his adoptive Maasailand stranglehold.“We are also putting together a think-tank and, in the New Year, we will roll out a campaign that will shake the country,” the minister’s aide, Mr Peter Sapalan, told the Sunday Nation.
While the people’s political and cultural supremo, Heritage minister William ole Ntimama, has not come out in the open to endorse his bid, it is instructive that he has not dismissed it.
Two MPs from the region, Kajiado Central’s Joseph Nkaissery and Kilgoris’ Gideon Kochellah, have come out to support the minister.
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