Ngilu is just spoiling for a fight with the VP

  SHARE BOOKMARKPRINTEMAILRATING

By KWENDO OPANGA
Posted  Saturday, September 8  2012 at  19:19

IN SUMMARY

• Nobody loves a public personal scrap better than Mrs Ngilu. Nobody loves a public spat better than Mrs Ngilu.
• She was reported to have snatched a microphone from Mr Musyoka and slapped him.
• Mr Musyoka has been snubbed twice by Mrs Ngilu at public functions before the stare and glare of the public and media.
• Twice Mr Musyoka proffered a hand in greeting; twice Mrs Ngilu just ignored it. That was not just another hand; it was the V-P’s hand.
• Well, Mrs Ngilu was also blaming the VP for her graft troubles at Maji House.

Unfortunately for Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka a political fight, just like charity, begins and lives at home. Worse, it is personified and stays next door.

Like him, Mrs Kaluki Ngilu, whose first name is Charity, has come home and, like him, will be gunning for the presidency. Charity just brought the fight home, the fight for the home turf.

Unfortunately again, Mrs Ngilu is forcing the VP to reckon with the expression common at Westminster that all politics is local.

He may want to believe that he has Ukambani under lock and key and that all he has to worry about is how to add the votes from other parts of the country to it.

But Mrs Ngilu is spoiling for battle at home first. Ominously, Mr Musyoka has always brought out the worst in Mrs Ngilu. She is as disdainful of the man as she is disrespectful of him as Vice-President.

Mr Musyoka is her senior in the politics of Ukambani, having been first elected in a by-election in 1985. But in Ngiluspeak, that counts for nothing.

Mrs Ngilu was elected to Parliament in 1992. Mr Musyoka had served as assistant minister for Labour, Deputy Speaker, Kanu organising secretary, minister for Foreign Affairs and minister for Education before Mrs Ngilu became an MP and long before she became minister. But in Ngilu’s world that counts for nothing.

Mrs Ngilu is the pied piper of pork politics. It is why she contemptuously points out that Ukambani still thirsts for water despite Mr Musyoka’s 27-year-long servant leadership. What counts is the pork she has brought home.

Ngilu wants this fight to be fought over the pork she and VP have given Ukambani before the winner goes to the country. But here, Mama Rainbow the unifier, as she was called in 2002, believes she is one better than the Vice-President.

Share This Story

  

Indeed, Mrs Ngilu laments that when she recently came under fierce fire for allocating most water projects to Ukambani, Mr Musyoka did not raise a finger in her support or defence.

Nobody loves a public personal scrap better than Mrs Ngilu. Nobody loves a public spat better than Mrs Ngilu.

Snatch microphone

She it was who, in the lead up to the switch to multi-party politics in 1992, changed the name of then Kitui District Commissioner from Taragon to Dragon.

She was reported to have snatched a microphone from him and slapped him. Mr Musyoka has been snubbed twice by Mrs Ngilu at public functions before the stare and glare of the public and media.

Twice Mr Musyoka proffered a hand in greeting; twice Mrs Ngilu just ignored it. That was not just another hand; it was the V-P’s hand. Well, Mrs Ngilu was also blaming the VP for her graft troubles at Maji House.

Do you recall that at the height of her failed campaign to bring about legislation that would have ensured all of us had healthcare, women turned up to demonstrate in Nairobi’s streets?

Yes, the late John Michuki had caricatured Mrs Ngilu’s campaign for universal healthcare as jumping up and down as if in some Kamba dance.

In that fight, the best she has fought so far, she was up against the President and her Cabinet colleagues in the ill-fated Narc administration. She was up against the insurance industry and providers of medical care.

In a word, she was up against the big players – or big money – in the healthcare industry. Mrs Ngilu will want to make providing quality and affordable healthcare, water, education, empowerment of women and creation of wealth her national agenda.

But a question on morning TV on Tuesday pointed to the rough road ahead. She was asked if the launch of her presidential bid on Sunday amounted to positioning herself to be picked as somebody else’s running mate.

Probing question

A more probing question would have been why she did not include security in her agenda or if, by playing up the women’s card, she was antagonising the male voters.

That morning TV question recalls an event early in the year when her lieutenants put out word that she would be gunning for the presidency.

Mr Johnstone Muthama, the MP for Kangundo and a leading man in the VP’s corner, urged her on, but added the rider that they knew who she was working for.

This sentiment appeared to gain currency when Mrs Ngilu herself recently said she was supporting Mr Raila Odinga for the presidency. Ukambani, enjoy this fight because Mrs Ngilu will not be president.

Kwendo Opanga is a media consultant. opanga@diplomateastafrica.com