‘Uhuru has matured politically. He has shown the world that he can be a statesman. When he lost to Mwai Kibaki in 2002, he publicly conceded defeat. He did not turn quarrelsome,’ James Njiru.
In large measure, Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta owes his meteoric rise in politics thus far to two men: his late father Jomo, and Daniel arap Moi, both former presidents. Ironically, the spirits of Jomo and arap Moi loom large and may very well derail the momentum of Uhuru as he makes a second attempt for the country’s top seat. Reason?
Subtly, the scheduled elections is shaping up to being a referendum on Jomo’s and Moi’s cumulative 39 years in power. Understandably, dissenting voices are blossoming by the day emboldened by an external occurrence:a ruling by the International Criminal Court delivered late last year that alleged that Uhuru and three others were responsible for carrying out crimes against humanity after suspect presidential results were announced late 2007. The ICC however has made it clear that the issue of whether Uhuru and William Ruto, one amongst the four accused with presidential ambitions of his own should ran, rests entirely with the Kenyan people.
According to Peter Kuguru, once a stalwart of Moi’s Kanu political party and presently coordinator of the Orange Democratic Party wing coalescing around Raila Odinga, a political denizen in CentralProvince, Uhuru’s alleged popularity, particularly in his Central Kenya backyard is exaggerated.
“What amplifies Uhuru’s stature is his father’s legacy, period. The old man was immensely respected, never mind what the numerous naysayers may say, Jomo was a damn good leader. But give me a break, Uhuru does not meet the minimum threshold required to lead a country. A constituency I probably can understand. I get this feeling that because he was born in State House, he thinks he needs to live in State House. He suffers from a sense of entitlement,” says Kuguru.
He adds, “Many of those batting for Uhuru’s corner are nothing but sycophants, who are counting on having a piece of the expected largess from the Kenyatta family.”
Indeed, Uhuru’s approachable demeanor belies his blue-blooded heritage. His ‘high-five-ing’; his easy laugh; his firm hand grip to all and sundry; all this makes him appear like the guy next door. But the truth is, he is the doorkeeper for a lot of ambitious men. If he opens the door, you smile; if he closes it, you arguably become acquainted with sorrow.
Like the proverbial housefly that follows a corpse to a grave, Uhuru has had to amongst other burdens withstand withering criticism from his political foes as a consequence of his well known father, Jomo Kenyatta, the country’s first president whose 14-year-old tenure continues to draw mixed feelings across the political aisle.
Widely believed to have been a patriarch who brooked no opposition, the legacy of Jomo has remained controversial as the man himself, since he was buried 35 years ago when Uhuru, the political scion of the Kenyatta dynasty was just 18 years old. “There is no point guarding a dead body,” said a mercurial Raphael Wanjala, who represented Bundalangi constituency in Western Kenya in the last Parliament. “What economic benefit do we get when soldiers continue to guard a dead corpse? he poses in reference to the Mausoleum within the Parliamentary grounds where the remains of Jomo are interred.
Even the foreign media has refused to cut Uhuru some slack for even when a news item is exclusively about him, his fathers shadow remains a constant companion. A case in point: Late last year Forbes-Africa magazine provided details of Africa’s 40 richest individuals and Uhuru’s name popped up at an impressive position 26, emerging the richest person within the East and Central African region, with an estimated net worth of $500 million (Sh41bn)
The only other soul appearing in the list from within the region was industrialist magnate Chris Kirubi who ranked at position 31 with an enviable net worth of $300 million (Sh24.8 billion). But how the magazine described Uhuru made it appear that were it not for Jomo, Uhuru would probably be a prosaic hustler within Nairobi streets, if not at his Gatundu backyard.
Said the magazine, “Kenya’s Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta is the son of the first President, Jomo Kenyatta, and heir to some of the largest land holdings in Kenya. He owns at least 500,000 acres of prime land, spread across the country. "The land was acquired by his father in the 1960s and 1970s when the British colonial government and the World Bank funded a settlement transfer fund scheme that enabled government officials and wealthy Kenyans to acquire land from the British at very low prices. The family owns Kenya’s largest dairy company.”
But did Uhuru himself learn from being the son of Jomo? “Growing up in the Kenyatta household taught us many things. My father taught us to treat everyone fairly. He taught us the essence of justice and fairness, he told us to learn from history but not to live in history,” he once told a local paper.
According to James Njiru, formerly a volatile Kirinyaga Kanu chairman, Uhuru meets the threshold of being Kenya’s next president on account of practising the politics of inclusiveness, in a country whose political leadership coalesces around a culture identifiable with a village bumpkin. “Uhuru has matured politically. He has shown the world that he can be a statesman of note. When he lost in his first presidential bid to Mwai Kibaki in 2002, he publicly conceded defeat. He did not turn quarrelsome. And in 2005, he worked closely with Raila Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement during a constitution referendum and offered Kibaki and his team a through defeat. He is very practical.
"And even when he made his first stab to parliamentary politics and lost to Moses Muhia, a political green horn at the time, Uhuru did not show his back to the people of Gatundu North, instead he stuck with them and the people rewarded him by voting him in, in 2002. And recently when he was indicted by the International Criminal Court, he stepped aside from his position as the Minister for Finance. But more important is that despite being immensely well heeled, Uhuru has retained a common touch. He is a people’s person.”
As expected some people, like Kuguru think Njiru should be talking to the birds. He opines that Uhuru’s leadership qualities have yet to mature to fit into the shoes of the country’s CEO. Kuguru says, “Even William Ruto, his current comrade in arms, has better qualities than Uhuru when leadership qualities are sought. For if Uhuru for example was really that charismatic, he would have easily won the Gatundu North parliamentary seat the first time he ran. But he floundered. And even the second time when he won, it was basically because former President Moi, had him propped as a presidential candidate.
"If President Moi had not tapped Uhuru for the seat, we would probably be talking about a different Uhuru. Indeed, one may wonder, what has Uhuru achieved since entering public life? Can you compare the achievements of say Raila Odinga with those of Uhuru? Lets be objective. Even Peter Kenneth, back in his Gatanga constituency has probably achieved more for his constituents compared to what Uhuru has done for his Gatundu North constituents.”
But Prof Munene Macharia, a history lecturer at United States International University, Nairobi, holds a different view. He believes that Uhuru’s candidature is very popular, particularly in Central Kenya and within its environs. He argues that Uhuru is one of the few politicians with a clear national following especially amongst the critical demography of the youth. “The fact that he is Kanu chairman with its national network gives him contacts that many do not have. Until recently, his support was thought to be outside the Mt Kenya region which explains why he lost in 1997 to Moses Muhia. Also, Uhuru has very good rapport with the grassroot youth, who have virtually owned him, partly because of the rumours and accusations about him.
"They can identify with his earthly youthfulness. Second, he poses his father’s voice which sounds musical. Third, those who admired his father genuinely see a reincarnation of the father in the son who appears to be suffering for the public just as his father did in the 1950s. One Mau Mau song prayed: “O Kenyatta, Kenyatta, Ngai arokorathima. Niundu ni weruteire kunyaririrwo muingi” (O Kenyatta, Kenyatta, may God bless you for your selflessness towards the public). It appears as if the same thing has happened to the son and hence his popularity which makes him a force to reckon with.”
But what outstanding thing has Uhuru done to make him a commendable Presidential candidate?
According to Prof Munene the 50-year-old father of two performed well as Minister for Finance and for Local Government, acquiring a reputation, whether justly or not, as a man who can defend national interests, should they come under threat. “He has overcome the label of being Moi’s project and he has matured into being his own man. That is credible. His public presentations, in terms of clarity and logic, tend to be disarming to his opponents who might not have prepared as well. And he added a few feathers to his cap by the way he handled Moreno Ocampo, the International Criminal Court prosecutor, during his pre-trail hearings.”
Within the political cabal that surrounds President Mwai Kibaki, Uhuru is widely thought to be the preferred presidential candidate once Kibaki completes the maximum two-five-year terms later this year. Sadly for the Uhuru camp, in late February it lost a dependable and influential ally in the name of John Michuki,a former Environment minister. And the effects of the death will readily be felt particularly in Central Kenya largely because Michuki had curved for himself an image of a Mr Fix-it within the region. His word was worth taking to the bank and few individuals could contemplate to take him on and hope to survive a political fight.
He goes down on record as having told the rest of the country that only Uhuru could speak and talk on behalf of the Kikuyu people. “Anybody who wants to do business with the Kikuyu community needs to talk to Uhuru,” he controversially said without batting an eyelid. And recently when Moi announced publicly that Uhuru merited to lead the country, his utterances worked against the latter.
But political pundits point out that if Uhuru needed Moi in the past to win an election, today Uhuru needs to distance himself from Moi if he is interested in winning the top seat. The last time Moi went down this road, in 2002, he was horribly disappointed as his “Uhuru Project” suffered a black eye in the polls.
According to Wanyiri Kihoro, a former Legislator and political detainee, the apparent popularity of Uhuru is all hype even within Central Kenya where his ratings are said to be soaring, alleging that were the son of Jomo inclined to helping the Kenyan people “he would have done it yesterday”. “Even when he was holding down the fort at the influential Ministry of Finance, he would have used his influence to resettle the tens of thousands of Internally Displaced Persons scattered all over the country. In fact, Uhuru does not need to be a minister to execute that kind of thing. If truly he were publicly spirited, he can go ahead to donate a piece of his family land to resettle the IDPs and he would feel no pain because he is arguably Kenya’s biggest land owner, after the Kenyan government and probably the Catholic Church.”
As a straight –talker Wanyiri has not been shy on taking on the larger Kenyatta family whom he has accused in the past of abetting atrocities towards the Kenyan people. “I am on record for having said that Kenyatta left prison restrictions for his home in Gatundu on 14th August 1961, a very poor person. I’ve been in prison myself and I can speak authoritatively that anybody coming out of detention is not materially endowed unless one was a wealthy person before detention like Kenneth Matiba.
There is no evidence which shows that Kenyatta was materially endowed before he was arrested in 1952 and jailed for seven years. As we all know, in 1961 the then government led by Ronald Ngala and with the help of members of the public had to build a house for Kenyatta. So he could not have been a man of means. How then could it be that at the end of his rule in August 1978, he had acquired such enormous wealth stretching from the Rift Valley to Central and Coast Provinces?” he told Finance Magazine in 2000.
According to Kihoro, Uhuru presently needs to be advised to drop his presidential bid for the time being because the ICC charges are serious enough and he needs time to prepare for the hearings so that he can clear his name. “He is still a young man. His dad took over the country when he was very old and he ruled for 14 years uninterruptedly. And Uhuru still has time on his side. Having said that, I can confirm to the world that the 12 years that Uhuru has been in public life have not prepared him for the presidency. Uhuru for now is not made of Presidential timber. He is still very raw.”
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