Kanu Will Become Irrelevant in Kenyan Politics

Okoth Osewe’s Prophecies: Kanu Will Become Irrelevant in Kenyan Politics

Kanu will become irrelevant

The Kenya African National Union (KANU) is a political Party whose fortunes continue to dwindle. The person responsible for KANU’s gradual slide to irrelevancy in Kenya’s politics is former dictator Daniel arap Moi and a bunch of henchmen who once populated his kitchen Cabinet like Nicholas Kipyator arap Biwott. The former power baron in Moi’s Kenya is believed by pundits to have masterminded the failed Uhuru Project that led to Raila Odinga’s movement from KANU to facilitate the rise of Mwai Kibaki to power.

KANU could have captured power in December 2002 polls were it not for Moi’s backward schemes of trying to call the shots from retirement through “Project Uhuru.” After losing it in 2002, KANU could have re-invented itself during the Referendum when it joined hands with ODM to fight against the implementation of the “Mongrel Wako draft” of the new Constitution. When it joined hands with ODM to help fight the Kibaki dictatorship, some Kenyans thought that Uhuru Kenyatta had learned his lessons after the Uhuru Project collapsed but he hadn’t.

After a successful performance at the Referendum on a united front, KANU’s Chairman, Uhuru Kenyatta, made a fresh mistake “Moi-style” by moving the Party out of ODM to join Kibaki’s PNU. This stupid political move was motivated by tribalism. It was simple. Kibaki, a Kikuyu, was contesting the Presidency and Uhuru, a Kikuyu, was convinced by Kibaki’s campaign team to step down in favour of Kibaki, a fellow Kikuyu. Such a move was seen by the Kikuyu ruling class as being in the interest of the wider Kikuyu community who were, nevertheless, detached from real power politics, which was being played at State House.

Uhuru Kenyatta made history on a global scale by being the first leader of official opposition to support and join the incumbent President in a general election. It was pathetic to say the least. That was after Biwott tried to take over KANU using Moi and failed because ODM, fearful of losing Uhuru, fought tooth and nail until Uhuru regained his position as KANU Chairman. Biwott and Moi had masterminded a coup that was defeated through ODM mobilization. After failing to win the election in 2002, KANU’s performance in December 2007 was even worse. It lost even more seats in Parliament. Traditionally, KANU’s base has been the Rift Valley with over three million voters. All these voters moved to ODM as reflected in the number of ODM candidates who made it to Parliament.

During discussions that led to the signing of the National Accord, KANU was basically nowhere and Uhuru Kenyatta, the leader, had to wait for the situation to develop without playing a significant role in the whole process. What will happen now is that KANU will gradually begin to lose even more influence in areas where it still has support as it becomes apparent that KANU candidates will be unable to make it to Parliament on the basis of waning political influence. The Party has had its days at State House (1963–2002) and, in the minds of millions of Kenyans, it will be a good deal if KANU calls it a day and goes into retirement.

The Party is associated with some of the worst moments in Kenya’s history and in the run up to the next election, contesting seats on a KANU ticket will point more to a sure road to defeat than a ticket to the National Assembly. Uhuru Kenyatta is the Chairman of KANU but when he makes political statements, he is seen more as a PNU tool than a KANU leader because KANU is in the political intensive care unit. Moi tried to revive KANU in the run up to December 2007 by mobilizing members to vote for Kibaki but this attempt ended catastrophically. The Kalenjin, whose support Moi had banked on for decades, threw all three of his sons out of Parliament because they did not want to have anything to do with KANU.

I may be wrong but the way I see it, KANU is slowly running out of oxygen and come the next election, it will either be irrelevant in the political landscape or dead and buried on the political graveyard.

Raila Odinga’s Stolen Presidency (pges 425-426)

RELATED 2008 PROPHECIES in Stolen Presidency:

• The Land Question Will Never be Resolved Under Coalition’s Life
• A New Constitution Will Be Delivered
• A Kikuyu Presidency in the Near Future Will be Difficult Part 1
• A Kikuyu Presidency in the Near Future Will be Difficult Part 2