The increasing likelihood that one Mike 'Sonko' Mbuvi will be elected senator for Nairobi, and that Ferdinand Clifford Waititu may well be the first ever governor of Nairobi, is a source of deep amazement and wonder for many middle class Kenyans.
And though there are some who arrive at this amazement from a position of pure snobbery, there are actually sound reasons why a well-informed voter might squirm at the prospect of either of these two men ascending to high office.
The senate, in nations which have long had one as part of their legislative structure, is a place for deep deliberation on the affairs of the nation. Now think for a moment of the many occasions that you may have seen Mike Sonko on TV.
Did he appear capable of the 'deepest deliberation', as he stood there resplendent with his massive gold rings on every available finger, and flamboyant clothes in every colour of the rainbow? And yet by all accounts, this man is the runaway favourite to be the senator for our capital city.
And if some months from now some VIP like the US Secretary of State, or the President of China, should arrive at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport for an official visit, prominent among those in the receiving line, most likely, will be one Mike Sonko, the senator for Nairobi.
And, as likely as not, right next to Senator Sonko, we may see Governor Waititu. It’s true that Waititu’s chances — according to some polls — are not as good as Sonko’s.
But he is definitely among the two top candidates, and there is every chance that he will be sworn in as governor at some elaborate ceremony. And thereafter be seen moving about the city in his official limousine with immense grace and dignity.
And speaking of grace and dignity, those are not the words you would — up to this point — have generally associated with Waititu.
There is neither grace nor dignity in being grabbed roughly by the collar; carried off by the police; and then tossed onto a waiting Land Rover.
Yet this is what we saw again and again over the years, as Waititu went off on one escapade or another, allegedly in defense of the interests of his constituents.
So how is it that we find these two men — generally regarded as “jokers” by their political opponents who clearly underestimated them — are well on their way to political glory on a scale that seemed unimaginable just a year ago?
I have a theory on this: To my mind, the logic behind their success in mobilising their adoring hordes is something I once heard in a recorded speech. The great independence-era political leader, Tom Mboya, was asked by a foreign journalist what he hoped independence would achieve. He listed three things: human dignity, political liberty, and economic opportunity.
Well, you cannot deny that we now have political liberty. And economic opportunity is precisely what we know to be still lacking in this country, and it is what every presidential candidate promises to deliver.
But the quest for ‘human dignity’ is easily overlooked. Tom Mboya gave that interview at a time when indigenous Kenyans were not allowed into what we would now call five-star hotels.
There was a strict ‘colour bar’ — something very much like the apartheid of South Africa which ended just two decades ago — which humiliated even the most educated Africans of those days. So ‘human dignity’ was a major consideration in a way that is easily forgotten now.
There is no ‘colour bar’ now. But the great majority of indigenous Kenyans still live lives which involve daily humiliation at the hands of what must appear to them as a hostile and remote governing authority, from which they desire to be liberated.
And just as the ordinary Kenyan in those early days worshipped the great liberators of those times — above all Jomo Kenyatta, Jaramogi Odinga and Tom Mboya — in much the same way, the poor man or woman in Nairobi sees Sonko or Waititu as liberators.
These are the men willing to stop bulldozers from destroying their shanties; the men who fight to stop public land being grabbed; the heroes who are willing to receive the blows of police truncheons, in defense of 'the small man'.
These guys may be uniquely ill-equipped for the demands of high office as governor or senator; but they will be very hard to beat in an election where the majority of voters are poor.
The writer comments on topical issues.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment