The day young Uhuru earned his family name

By Mwenda Njoka

KENYA: Uhuru Kenyatta most probably owes his entry to politics to a now obscure political event at Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC) one sunny afternoon some 23 years ago.

It was July 31, 1990 – and at the height of the clamour for political pluralism – that some five young Kenyans in their mid- to late-20s made a strong case for the opening up of the political space thereby joining a growing chorus then for the ruling party Kanu to relax its grip on power.

This was at a time Kanu was the sole custodian of the country’s political thought process to the extent that any attempt to contradict Kanu and Moi was considered a brave thing to do indeed. The group of five young Kenyans, in a presentation to the George Saitoti-led Kanu Electoral Review Committee, urged President Moi and the then ruling party to listen to the voices of reason that were demanding expanded political space.

This was a risky position at the time, more so if you were not a seasoned politician in the class of Kenneth Matiba or the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Masinde Muliro, and Martin Shikuku.

Among the five young Kenyans who had the nerve to take on President Moi was one lanky, shy-looking youth who went by the name Uhuru Kenyatta. Others in the group were Alfred Getonga, Argwings Ceaser Kodhek, Peter Mboya, and Francis Michuki. As would have been expected at the time, the group’s support for multiparty political system did not go down well with the political establishment. The quintet was dismissed as “sons of prominent Kenyans who had chosen to abuse their privileged position in society to undermine the government,” to use the words of the then powerful Kanu official and Cabinet minister, the late Elijah Mwangale.

Mwangale was right on one point though: that the group of five indeed comprised of sons of prominent Kenyans. Francis Michuki (son to the late minister John Michuki), Peter Mboya (son to the fiery trade unionist and minister, the late Tom Mboya), Ceaser Kodhek (son to one of Kenya’s first African lawyers and Cabinet minister, the late Argwings Kodhek), Alfred Getonga (son to pioneer Nairobi Town Clerk, the late Simeon Getonga) and of course Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta (son to Jomo Kenyatta).

According to knowledgeable sources, it was after the ‘little’ incident of the KICC press conference in 1990 that President Moi took notice of his predecessor’s son, Uhuru, and started entertaining ideas about co-opting the Kenyatta scion into Kanu, as a strategy of wooing back to the then ruling party the populous Central Province which had fled Kanu almost to the man.

Collating view

The intransigent position taken by the ‘sons of prominent Kenyans’ against Kanu’s monopolistic hold onto political power most probably contributed significantly to Moi’s decision a few weeks later to appoint what was to become the Saitoti Kanu Review Commission that went around the country ostensibly collecting and collating views of Kenyans on whether or not Kanu should cease being the sole legal political party on the land.

And a few months after the KICC press conference by Uhuru & Co, President Moi reached out to Mama Ngina, the former First Lady and Uhuru’s mother and expressed his intention to work with the young Kenyatta but within Kanu.

Moi also enlisted the support of key leaders from Central Province to help him woo Uhuru into the political arena. Prominent among those who assisted President Moi in this ambitious political venture was the late Njenga Karume, a political player who had made a fortune and built an expansive business empire by virtue of his closeness to Uhuru’s father, President Jomo Kenyatta.

 Soon thereafter and before the year’s end (that is 1990), a meeting was organised between Moi and Uhuru. And sometimes later private citizen Uhuru Kenyatta became chairman of Kenya Tourism Board.

And as fate would have it, this was the time when powerman Nicholas Biwott was holding the portfolio that included the ministry of Tourism, which made him Uhuru’s boss while at the same time providing a close working relationship between Uhuru the political greenhorn, and Biwott, the Master of the Game.

Did Biwott play something of a mentoring role to Uhuru at the time? May be, may be not. This is a question that will possibly be answered much later in the future when that particular chapter of Kenya’s history is researched on and written.

Steady climb

It was from these rather inauspicious beginnings that Uhuru started a slow but steady climb up the greasy pole that is competitive politics world over. Initially the way for Uhuru appeared to be all smoothened by President Moi, thanks to the patronage politics of the time. 

An appointment here to head a strategic public body, another appointment there to spearhead a critical national operation such a campaign against hunger all ensured that Uhuru was constantly in the limelight from the moment Moi headhunted him as a possible successor soon after that significant KICC press conference.

What’s more, by 1997, Uhuru had been pushed up the political ladder to become a Kanu branch chairman. This was a powerful position at the time and one that almost assured the holder a direct ascendancy to parliament. But this was not to be so for Uhuru as he found out a few months later when he threw hits hat into the ring to contest the Gatundu Parliamentary seat only to suffer a miserable defeat in the hands of an apparent political nonentity, Moses Mwihia (whose surname translates to Moses ‘the Sinner’).

Moses Mwihia’s political ‘sin’ of blocking Uhuru from getting a parliamentary seat on his first attempt served as the perfect political training ground for this St. Mary’s School and Amherst College (US) trained political science and economics graduate. Uhuru declined Moi’s offer to nominate him to parliament soon after losing the Gatundu seat. It was only years later – and with a bigger scheme in the offing – that Uhuru agreed to become a nominated MP. Uhuru’s nomination to Parliament was pushed through via the ‘voluntary’ resignation from parliament of nominated MP Mark Too in 2001.

From then on it was political fast-forward for Uhuru by President Moi. A quick sleight of the hand by Moi ensured Uhuru got elected as one of the four national vice-chairmen of Kanu. He was ready for the big deal now coming up in 2002. Or was he? Well, although Moi preferred him as his successor, voters had other ideas and they overwhelmingly voted for Mwai Kibaki instead of Uhuru Kenyatta. After losing the 2002 elections, Uhuru went back to the drawing board trying to learn when and where the rain started beating him.  It was from this point he started building credentials as his own man.

Parting ways with Moi’s Kanu, exiting as one of President Kibaki’s inner core team marked Uhuru’s eventual but deliberate coming of age.

Will he prevail on March 4? Only time and voters will tell.