Wednesday, March 28, 2012


Contrast in minister’s pettiness, VP’s dignity


Updated 6 hr(s) 22 min(s) ago
By Joseph Kipkemei
Two ministers jetted into the country on Saturday morning and headed to Uhuru Park for Wangari Maathai’s funeral; the first Uhuru Kenyatta straight from the Hague and the other Charity Ngilu from France. Little did the two waziris know that, by the end of the funeral, each would be involved in telling moments, one of them telling of largesse, the other, juvenile demeanor.
Uhuru Kenyatta provided a rarefied grasp of the art of real politick when upon arrival at Uhuru Park’s Freedom Corner he heartily hugged Raila — the very man, nay, nemesis, he had roundly bashed at The Hague when he took to the defense podium.
Ngilu, on the other hand chose to petulantly ignore the outstretched hand of Kalonzo Musyoka. This she did ostensibly to spite the Vice-President even after her desperate efforts to assign all her woes — political, family and her other ill-mannered detours on a man who is neither her political rival nor her colleague in the Ministry of Water.
The irony of the situation is that given the verbal attacks on the person of Kalonzo Musyoka by Ngilu one would have thought the former would have no business whatsoever stretching his hand to Ngilu yet Kalonzo took the high road and did just that.
In the meantime, Ngilu chose to cast grace to the wind and respond in such an unseasoned manner.
Of all known expressions of human gracefulness, the handshake is the most basic. It is about decency and the affirmation of a human being to another and certainly not a statement of affection.
Anyone hoarding greetings could be mistaken to subscribe to some Early Man jungle code.
That is why no meaningful event starts without it, be it presidential summits or football matches. Even the more adversarial sports such as boxing are preceded with an exchange of civil pleasantries.

Artificial amnesia

In a word, greeting the next person, be he or she your adversary, is the loudest statement of maturity.
Looking deeper into the issue one will easily see that there is neither rivalry nor enmity between the Vice-President and the Water minister.
It may seem that what drives Ngilu to illusory battles with Kalonzo is the political mileage she seeks to draw as a victim of Kalonzo’s obviously more superior political dazzle compared to her own beclouded influence.
How else can you justify the fact that every time there is a corruption allegation against her Mama Charity just blames Kalonzo until the coast is clear again?
Are there no other stunts she can pull to cover her misadventures once caught with her door ajar? And are Kenyans that easily gullible? Really?
Is it not suspicious that Ngilu buries her political hatchet with Kalonzo once things improve for her until the next time problems come her way?
It’s time the self-appointed matron of Ukambani politics saved Kenyans her coarse political charade and uncalled for sessions of washing dirty linen in public.
As we stand now, you can trust that the hatchet will be resurrected and duly wielded as soon as another storm begins to gather around the Water minister.
If my memory serves me well.
Ngilu’s own assistant minister went commando on her over his persuasion that she had misappropriated resources at the ministry. The Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission then conducted investigations following the allegations and recommended prosecution.
And so did Parliament, which though clearing her also called for investigations of Ministry officials.
In all this, I did not hear of the Vice-President’s hand in the matter. Not once!
At the height of these corruption allegations a theory was bandied around suggesting the Water Minister was facing persecution for doing her star performance in her ministry and especially for delivering water to Ukambani.

Flooding Ukambani

Yet other than lining up cronies and relatives as contractors in her ministry, there is really not much to write home about Ngilu’s alleged revolution in flooding the entire Ukambani with clean water.
I actually think that Ngilu’s self promotion to intended to cause artificial amnesia on projects initiated by the Vice President whose aggregate score, though largely unsung is quite substantial.
It is a tragic shame that at the state funeral of a personage of iconic proportions as Wangari Maathai, our otherwise gallant Charity Ngilu would sprinkle disdain on the VP publicly.
On seeing her reaction, I feared that Kenya could be losing Ngilu to disproportionate judgement, a prospect that is sad and truly regrettable. I hope not.
—The writer is a commentator on political and social Issues.
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