Jubilee: Our march to State House has started

Jubilee leaders arrive in Uhuru Park Nairobi for their rally.

By Oscar Obonyo

NAIROBI; KENYA: Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta on Saturday made a triumphant entry to the historic Uhuru Park, where he was officially unveiled, before a jubilant crowd, as Jubilee’s presidential candidate.

Exuding confidence, speaker after speaker vowed to triumph key rivals in the Coalition of Reforms and Democracy (CORD) of Prime Minister Raila Odinga. Setting the pace, Water minister Charity Ngilu described the event as the beginning of “our march to the next Government”.

The venue, which bears the name of the Gatundu South MP, was apt for its sentimental value. It is from here that his late father, Kenya’s founding President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, routinely presided over most of the national public functions.

Speaking at the historic occasion, Uhuru, who will be making his second stab at the presidency, sought to disabuse the notion that Jubilee is a union of Kenya’s two major tribes. He explained that his coalition reflects all shades of Kenyan communities, including the youth and the old.

Speaking earlier, Assistant cooperative minister Jebii Kilimo observed that everyone was born with a talent and that leadership was a God-given talent to some individuals: “This is not about tribe or discrimination of certain communities, but about talent. Uhuru and Ruto are talented leaders.”

Coming in the wake of an Infotrack opinion poll showing Uhuru trails his main challenger Raila, with an approval rating of 39 per cent as opposed to the PM’s 51, speakers dismissed the survey findings as misleading.

Speakers at the event targeted mainly rivals in Cord, with other presidential aspirants including Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi, Planning Assistant minister Peter Kenneth and Gichugu MP Martha Karua, among others being spared.

Analogue politician

In an apparent reference to the PM, for instance, deputy presidential candidate, William Ruto hit out at “an analogue politician” for perpetually accusing those who voted against enactment of the new Constitution in 2010: “While I appreciate the fact that upgrading from analogue to digital is a slow process, I want to tell him that a new Constitution is now in place and Kenyans have since moved on.”

Curiously, a section of the speech by Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister Eugene Wamalwa, when he endorsed Uhuru’s candidature during the launch of TNA, served as an interlude between speeches, and was played when Uhuru and his team entered the rally venue at 2.20pm and at the end of the ceremony.

Wamalwa’s poetic lines, “I see a young man just like myself, who wishes to be and is capable of being President of the Republic of Kenya. And I ask, why not?!”, accordingly reverberated through the event.

Enumerating the pillars of development in his Jubilee Government, if elected, Uhuru listed food production, insecurity, unemployment, and women empowerment as the key concerns.

“We want to ensure this economy is not run at the top but at the grassroots level, and that the same should not be gauged on the basis of percentages of growth but on account of whether we would have succeeded to reduce poverty,” he said.

Touching on the state of insecurity, the Jubilee leader warned against random shooting of the youth by police, arguing, “nobody was born amkora (a law breaker)”.

“It is not about increasing the number of police officers that will solve the problem but empowering our youth, who in turn will provide security for their beloved country,” he said.

Instructively, the unveiling of Uhuru as presidential candidate on Saturday, coincides with the date Jomo Kenyatta was elected to the Kenyan Legislative Assembly to represent the constituency of Fort Hall, the present day Murang’a. This was on January 12, 1962, when Kariuki Njiri stepped down in favour of Kenyatta following his release from prison.

Even more symbolic, is the fact that Uhuru’s ceremony coincided with the date the British Colonial Government lifted the state of emergency on Kenya, January 12, 1960. The curfew had been declared on October 21, 1952 following a month-long of increased hostility by members of the Mau Mau movement directed at British administrators. And as if to unshackle himself from the ICC chains, Uhuru – by design or default – elected to kick off his State House journey, on this very date.

Election violence

On Saturday, Uhuru also dispelled the notion that the country will witness another spate of violence after the March General Election.

He appealed to Kenyans, instead, to exercise their democratic right peacefully.

And regarding cases at the International Criminal Court (ICC), where he and Ruto face charges of allegedly perpetuation the 2008 post-election violence, Uhuru reacted: “For those clinging on to the ICC cases as a campaign tool against Ruto and myself, I want to encourage them to instead sell their policies to Kenyans and allow the people decide on whom they wish to elect.”

The Uhuru-Ruto ticket has generated heated debate, with those opposed to the pair raising two key concerns. Because of the ICC cases, they point out that a possible Uhuru presidency would have Kenya isolated by the international community and condemned as a pariah state. Rivals also point out that the two hail from communities that have produced presidents in the country’s half a century history.

Ruto, however, maintained Jubilee will remain focused on development: “We shall invest in the curriculum of training our security agencies in accordance with the technological needs of the moment. Similarly, we shall work towards boosting the tourism sector with a view to expanding job opportunities,” said Ruto.

The Eldoret North MP further proposed that a Jubilee government would set up a special kitty or trust fund to enable the youth and women access loans.

“Our youths and women should no longer be the face of poverty in this country,” he said.

Mvita MP and leader of Republican Congress Party, which is allied to Jubilee, called on Raila and his running mate, Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka, to join President Kibaki in retirement.

While members of Jubilee’s top organ – the Summit or by a different name – were supposed to be unveiled, The Standard On Sunday has established that coalition operatives opted to avoid this divisive hurdle. Besides, they did not want to appear to give some aspirants a headstart or undue advantage, ahead of the party primaries on Thursday.

With the cases at the ICC weighing heavy on their shoulders, there have been lingering doubts about the eligibility of Uhuru-Ruto to vie for presidency. But with every concrete step made by the pair, the doubts have been swept aside.