Why Tuju Is The Best Candidate For PNU

WEDNESDAY, 04 JANUARY 2012 00:19 BY FADHILI KANINI

First, the PNU Alliance could do with a new name. That way, any baggage carry-over from the past will be buried with the onset of the new name.

Secondly, the Alliance would benefit a great deal from a line-up of representatives from every region in order to give Kenyans a sense of national representation.

Third and most critical, the Alliance should settle for a fresh face that sends a clear signal that, whatever its name would be, it is indeed new and has the fire in its belly to provide fresh and inspired leadership. Short of that, the so-called Alliance should quietly give in to an ODM presidency.

In my view, the third imperative naturally favours Raphael Tuju as both the best-suited Alliance leader and presidential candidate come 2012.

But why Tuju? To begin with, he brings unprecedented vigour and freshness of practical ideas to the next presidency if what he has been publishing in the media is a far measure of the mettle the man is made of.

Secondly, with all the hullabaloo about a unified presidential candidate, which went a notch higher during the New Year holiday weekend when politicians from the Lower Eastern region met at Chuka University, the time to select a neutral occupant of the Alliance’s top seat is due.

Third, if what the Central Kenya communities are strategizing on is giving President Kibaki the best send-off to cap his long and distinguished career in politics and their huge investment in him since the 1990s in terms of Presidential votes, then Tuju would be their best bet.

Fourth, Tuju’s 2012 candidature provides by far the best chance for the Mt Kenya region to show Kenyans that they too can embrace a son from another community since it may seem the person most of them have a beef with is Prime Minister Raila Odinga and not the Luo as a community. And the best way of doing this is to actually settle on a Presidential candidate who undoubtedly has the region’s interests in mind, is personally loyal to the outgoing President and can actually take the country forward.

The first presidency of the new constitutional order will need a person with the leadership skills, temperament and personality to play the role of National Chief Expectations Officer. Alone among all those now jostling to succeed President Kibaki inside the PNU political orbit, Tuju has what it takes to deliver on this job description.

The Mt. Kenya eastern politicians’ parley on New Year’s Eve made a number of declarations, key among them the fact that the region’s leaders will sit down with its preferred Presidential candidate and explain this massive vote bloc’s expectations if it is to invest its vote fully in him.

The leadership and people of Central need many more meetings like the Mt. Kenya eastern one between, say, the early New Year and Easter, but they must begin to discuss much weightier and much more meaningful matters than political cosmetology. And this, the GEMA communities must do with total clarity, the broadest open-mindedness and farsightedness. It is time for this vote to find another candidate and not necessarily in the Mountain region.

Tuju is a Kibaki man to the hilt. He has worked closely with the President for the entire 10-year period of his now-ending Presidency, including in Cabinet and as a senior adviser at the Office of the President. He understands the man intimately and intuitively, the man has been his mentor and the respect, admiration and trust between them is the long range and long distance kind.

A Tuju presidency would open up vast vistas of cooperation across very many regional and ethnic barriers and very possibly bring closure to much unfinished business between the peoples of the Mountain and the Lake that is stoked and kept simmering by the politics of opportunistic dynasty-building and megalomania.

The unifying factors and value-addition politics that would result from a Tuju Presidency propelled by massive and consistent support from Central Kenya would see Kenya through to the next several levels of meaningful change and real and equitable prosperity. His moderate brand of leadership would be essential to the country’s social and political direction at precisely the point where the wheel of history once again turns for Kenya – the exit of a figure of Kibaki’s stature and achievements.

Above all, what Tuju’s ascendance would prevent is even more significant: it would save Kenya from taking one of the worst wrong turns, at the national leadership level, that the country and nation could ever take.

Let’s face it: It’s time for Tuju.

Fadhili Kanini is a communication and PR associate running a consultancy firm in Nairobi. He comments on social and political issues.