Post by b6k on Sept 29, 2012 18:27:00 GMT 3
Uhuru's Political Ideology In Question
SATURDAY, 29 SEPTEMBER 2012 00:19 BY MUGAMBI KIAI
My dearly beloved king:
Kudos! Your recent by-election victories in Kangema and Kajiado North as well as the several civic seats scooped by The National Alliance party would seem to provide an emphatic riposte to your critics, doubters, naysayers and haters. But tread carefully my dearly beloved king: as a single swallow does not a summer make, so two by-election victories coupled with a number of civic triumphs do not equal a general election win.
But I will say this: if ever there was a political “coming out”, this was yours. For too long you had been too tightly attached to the apron strings of your political fathers and mentors: all three post-independent Kenyan presidents. These visible political links fuelled the suspicion that you are not your own man; that you were someone else’s puppet in a shadowy game of political ventriloquism. A close examination of your political genetics, hence, indicated that your political DNA was heavily compromised.
No more: what we now see is Uhuru Kenyatta not Uhuru the son of grand old Jomo. Neither do we anymore see Uhuru the political “project” of former President Daniel arap Moi. Nor do we now regard Uhuru as the favoured prince in the imperial court of President Mwai Kibaki. For this, you deserve a pat on the back.
In addition, there is another point that you have obviously clarified: that, should the Supreme Court of Kenya rule that you are constitutionally fit to run for president in the next general election, you will not be among the “donkeys” vying in a race that will most likely require two “horses” to run off against each other.
This is what brings me to why I am writing you this missive. You see, despite this clear political progression, there remain in my mind, as your loyal and devoted subject, some deep misgivings. These are misgivings of a democratic kind; they are related to my interpretation of your political identity.
You see, my dearly beloved king, democracy demands that it is not enough that you have been installed, enthroned, anointed and appointed by some amorphous ethnic assembly or entity as my dearly beloved king. Democracy is more austere and rigorous in this regard: it demands and commands that we drill much deeper below the surface of ethnic kinship and linguistic and cultural ties to establish why you should be democratically as my leader.
My choice in this regard is then to be guided by a sense of shared political identity: a kinship based not on ethnic considerations or ties of tribal affection but on a shared political ideology. So what, my dearly beloved king, is your political ideology? I can only decipher this from your political behaviour so I have briefly reviewed your verbal and non-verbal conduct to build a picture.
First, you are a firm believer of the unquestioned Big Man. Here, I will take the liberty of quoting you at your enthronement as my dearly beloved king in March 2011 in Muranga: "All of us should follow our muthamaki (great leader) Kibaki... I want to tell all the leaders here that if any one of them fails to toe the line, they should know that their politics is over. If Kibaki tells us to go to the left, we should do so, just like Ruto tells his people to go one way and they all do so."
This language is reminiscent of that famous admonition by Moi, at the height of his dictatorship, on September 13, 1984: “I call on all…to sing like parrots. During Mzee Kenyatta’s period I persistently sang the Kenyatta tune until people said: This fellow has nothing except to sing for Kenyatta…If I had sung another song, do you think Kenyatta would have left me alone? Therefore you ought to sing the song I sing. If I put a full stop, you should also put a full stop.”
In addition, this also articulates rabid intolerance for dissent, irascibility to criticism and intemperance to the principle of diversity of thoughts and ideas. Some illustrations reinforce this conclusion. There was the instance, in 2009, when Mars Group Kenya questioned a supplementary budget approval request tabled in Parliament by you as Minister for Finance after noticing about 10 billion shillings was missing from it.
Was your initial reaction not to question the integrity of the claimants rather than attend to the veracity of the claim? You will recall that you would later acknowledge that there was a “computer error” that caused this discrepancy after the matter was referred to a joint committee comprising the Budget and Finance Committees of Parliament.
The complaint by you that is before the Media Council of Kenya following an uncomplimentary opinion published by Star columnist Jerry Okungu could also be raised in this regard. What concerns me is this: if you exhibit such virile allergy to criticism when you are not in power, what will be the fate of dissenters, critics, haters, naysayers and the like when you ascend to power?
Third, I discern your political ideology to be pro the status quo. “We are tired of looking at the world through the rear view mirror,” you were quoted as stating this July in Meru. Yet, is it also not true that those who do not know their history are doomed to repeat it? With regard to Kenya, was it not acknowledged in the Annan mediation talks that historical injustices were a key root cause of the 2007 post-election violence?
Then, was the stand-off last year between the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Local Government on the question of providing a legislative framework for devolution not really about resistance to the constitutional letter and spirit of devolution? Finally, do you also recall how, close to the constitutional referendum in 2010, the Committee of Experts had to struggle for the release of funds to conduct civic education from the Ministry of Finance that you headed?
These are grave concerns my dearly beloved king. And I will conclude with another: how are we to believe that you as President will support the institutional and operational independence of public institutions that you do not agree with given the shabby manner you have publicly treated the International Criminal Court?
Mugambi Kiai is the Kenya Program Manager at the Open Society Initiative for Eastern Africa (OSIEA). The views expressed in this article are entirely his own and do not reflect the views of OSIEA.
www.the-star.co.ke/opinions/mugambi-kiai/95988-uhurus-political-ideology-in-question
Discuss...
SATURDAY, 29 SEPTEMBER 2012 00:19 BY MUGAMBI KIAI
My dearly beloved king:
Kudos! Your recent by-election victories in Kangema and Kajiado North as well as the several civic seats scooped by The National Alliance party would seem to provide an emphatic riposte to your critics, doubters, naysayers and haters. But tread carefully my dearly beloved king: as a single swallow does not a summer make, so two by-election victories coupled with a number of civic triumphs do not equal a general election win.
But I will say this: if ever there was a political “coming out”, this was yours. For too long you had been too tightly attached to the apron strings of your political fathers and mentors: all three post-independent Kenyan presidents. These visible political links fuelled the suspicion that you are not your own man; that you were someone else’s puppet in a shadowy game of political ventriloquism. A close examination of your political genetics, hence, indicated that your political DNA was heavily compromised.
No more: what we now see is Uhuru Kenyatta not Uhuru the son of grand old Jomo. Neither do we anymore see Uhuru the political “project” of former President Daniel arap Moi. Nor do we now regard Uhuru as the favoured prince in the imperial court of President Mwai Kibaki. For this, you deserve a pat on the back.
In addition, there is another point that you have obviously clarified: that, should the Supreme Court of Kenya rule that you are constitutionally fit to run for president in the next general election, you will not be among the “donkeys” vying in a race that will most likely require two “horses” to run off against each other.
This is what brings me to why I am writing you this missive. You see, despite this clear political progression, there remain in my mind, as your loyal and devoted subject, some deep misgivings. These are misgivings of a democratic kind; they are related to my interpretation of your political identity.
You see, my dearly beloved king, democracy demands that it is not enough that you have been installed, enthroned, anointed and appointed by some amorphous ethnic assembly or entity as my dearly beloved king. Democracy is more austere and rigorous in this regard: it demands and commands that we drill much deeper below the surface of ethnic kinship and linguistic and cultural ties to establish why you should be democratically as my leader.
My choice in this regard is then to be guided by a sense of shared political identity: a kinship based not on ethnic considerations or ties of tribal affection but on a shared political ideology. So what, my dearly beloved king, is your political ideology? I can only decipher this from your political behaviour so I have briefly reviewed your verbal and non-verbal conduct to build a picture.
First, you are a firm believer of the unquestioned Big Man. Here, I will take the liberty of quoting you at your enthronement as my dearly beloved king in March 2011 in Muranga: "All of us should follow our muthamaki (great leader) Kibaki... I want to tell all the leaders here that if any one of them fails to toe the line, they should know that their politics is over. If Kibaki tells us to go to the left, we should do so, just like Ruto tells his people to go one way and they all do so."
This language is reminiscent of that famous admonition by Moi, at the height of his dictatorship, on September 13, 1984: “I call on all…to sing like parrots. During Mzee Kenyatta’s period I persistently sang the Kenyatta tune until people said: This fellow has nothing except to sing for Kenyatta…If I had sung another song, do you think Kenyatta would have left me alone? Therefore you ought to sing the song I sing. If I put a full stop, you should also put a full stop.”
In addition, this also articulates rabid intolerance for dissent, irascibility to criticism and intemperance to the principle of diversity of thoughts and ideas. Some illustrations reinforce this conclusion. There was the instance, in 2009, when Mars Group Kenya questioned a supplementary budget approval request tabled in Parliament by you as Minister for Finance after noticing about 10 billion shillings was missing from it.
Was your initial reaction not to question the integrity of the claimants rather than attend to the veracity of the claim? You will recall that you would later acknowledge that there was a “computer error” that caused this discrepancy after the matter was referred to a joint committee comprising the Budget and Finance Committees of Parliament.
The complaint by you that is before the Media Council of Kenya following an uncomplimentary opinion published by Star columnist Jerry Okungu could also be raised in this regard. What concerns me is this: if you exhibit such virile allergy to criticism when you are not in power, what will be the fate of dissenters, critics, haters, naysayers and the like when you ascend to power?
Third, I discern your political ideology to be pro the status quo. “We are tired of looking at the world through the rear view mirror,” you were quoted as stating this July in Meru. Yet, is it also not true that those who do not know their history are doomed to repeat it? With regard to Kenya, was it not acknowledged in the Annan mediation talks that historical injustices were a key root cause of the 2007 post-election violence?
Then, was the stand-off last year between the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Local Government on the question of providing a legislative framework for devolution not really about resistance to the constitutional letter and spirit of devolution? Finally, do you also recall how, close to the constitutional referendum in 2010, the Committee of Experts had to struggle for the release of funds to conduct civic education from the Ministry of Finance that you headed?
These are grave concerns my dearly beloved king. And I will conclude with another: how are we to believe that you as President will support the institutional and operational independence of public institutions that you do not agree with given the shabby manner you have publicly treated the International Criminal Court?
Mugambi Kiai is the Kenya Program Manager at the Open Society Initiative for Eastern Africa (OSIEA). The views expressed in this article are entirely his own and do not reflect the views of OSIEA.
www.the-star.co.ke/opinions/mugambi-kiai/95988-uhurus-political-ideology-in-question
Discuss...