Post by Onyango Oloo on Feb 10, 2007 10:37:10 GMT 3
Can Saitoti Cut the Mustard?*
By Onyango Oloo
He is probably one of the few people in this country who could take a stab at solving Poincare’s Conjecture.
If you woke him up at three o’clock in the morning, he could, if he was in the mood, chat with you for three hours about differential algebraic topology.
Millions of Kenyans know him, but how many are aware that he is listed high among mathematicians of the African diaspora?
I am talking about
Professor George Saitoti-whose 1972 Ph D thesis zoomed in on the arcane subjects alluded to above.
He has been in the public domain so long as a politician that few people remember that he first made his mark as a braniac with a penchant for complex abstract problem solving.
What rushes to mind when the Kajiado North MP is mentioned?
Many people would immediately blurt:
“Moi’s former vice-president”.
Almost an equal number would mouth a Kenyan byword for grand theft:
“Goldenberg Scam”.
For better or for worse, those twin appellations hang around Saitoti’s neck as the infamous albatross on the unfortunate ancient mariner that the poet Coleridge conjured for posterity.
Our lanky professor turned mainstream politician has come very closely to being the State House tenant, having understudied Kenya’s “professor of politics” for close to a decade.
When he was unceremoniously dumped during the “kisirani in Kasarani” in early 2002, many pundits wrote him off as a pesky has been.
But when he romped back to the post-KANU Kibaki cabinet he seemed to have confounded his foes.
In 2006 President Kibaki gave Kenyans a Valentine’s Day gift by announcing on national television that his education minister was stepping aside largely because of the swirling and persistent clouds and ghosts of Goldenberg.
By the end of last July Saitoti’s smirking visage and his triumphalist words on news that he had been cleared of any wrong-doing vis-à-vis that shameful scandal underscored the staying power of the former vice-president.
From his Valentine’s low of yesteryear, Saitoti once again soared giddily in the national limelight when he was restored to his old cabinet post as the drama-drenched 2006 segued into this year.
The foregoing roller-coaster rise-fall-rise tidal ride has perhaps fostered the impression that Professor George Saitoti is a political survivor who will still be standing as the bell ending the fifteenth round tolls.
Perhaps it is with this mindset in mind that the education minister announced, amidst ululations and accompanied by his gyrating and toyi toying resurrected cabinet pal Kiraitu Murungi that he would be going for the chairmanship of the “chama cha maua”.
The swift riposte from his cabinet rival Mukhisa Kituyi was more like a kick in the teeth or a blow to Saitoti’s unsuspecting solar plexus, a veritable reality check that exposed and reminded Kenyans of Saitoti’s vulnerabilities.
Even though President Kibaki hobnobs with former President Daniel arap Moi, it is still politically damaging to highlight close and inner connections with the 39-year old KANU kleptocracy.
The fact that Prof. Saitoti was Moi’s faithful VP for many of those years can certainly NOT be counted as a feather in the education minister’s cap.
Goldenberg had its dubious anti-heroes and Saitoti was one of its most prominent.
The professor may have been acquitted by a duly constituted court of law.
But he is still indicted and convicted in the court of public opinion.
Mukhisa Kituyi was well aware of this Achilles’ heel even as he twisted the knife further on national television a few days ago.
The trade and industry minister knows full well the public disgust and bewilderment at the restoration of disgraced Kenyan public officials tainted by allegations of corruption and abuse of office.
By echoing that national doubt, that country-wide tashwishi in the political credentials of our renowned mathematician, Kituyi was basically asking Kenyans if they could or should trust Saitoti with a higher political position than he currently holds.
The education minister is still dogged by a persistent perception that he is not fit to ascend to the country’s highest office due to the fact that TWO of his bosses- Moi and Kibaki- have demoted him and humiliated him before millions of Kenyans.
The fact that Saitoti is serving Kibaki with the same alacrity, vim and vigour that he once defended the Moi-KANU ancien regime with is not necessarily a merit in his favour. To some observers, he cuts the figure of a cynical opportunist who will do anything to cling on to power and privilege.
Since NARC romped home to victory in December 2002 there has been a growing perception among Kenyans that the parvenu rulers led by Kibaki are becoming virtual clones of their former KANU rivals.
Nothing underscores this than the feeling among millions of Kenyans that the law is there to protect the rich and the courts to keep the powerful out of jail. The “acquittal” of Saitoti on all Goldenberg charges sent a searing, chilly message blaring the word “impunity”.
With all this baggage from the past, will Saitoti make it past the political heats in this year’s feverish parliamentary and presidential face offs?
Those who are in his corner will quickly point how he has weathered many a crisis.
His detractors in ODM for instance, will actually relish his attempt to reach for the top ranks in NARC-Kenya hoping that he becomes a convenient punching bag and source of headline grabbing sound-bites in the coming weeks and months as his opponents point to his graft littered political past which comes as a package with his close collaboration with the leading guns of the Moi one-party dictatorship.
Still, I would venture to caution the Mukhisa Kituyis not to be too smug out there in NARC-Kenya political turf.
Let us not forget that there are other skeletons in the cupboard of the government of national unity. Think Kiraitu Murungi. Wonder out loud how Kituyi himself catapulted from occasional pedestrian to frequent chopper rider.
In fact, depending on how strong the opposition wind blows, it may be doomsday for Kituyi, Saitoti and any of the head honchos in NARC- Kenya jostling for a perch in a possible Kibaki second term from where they can launch their 2012 presidential bids.
If that be the case, Saitoti may find that come December this year he may be experiencing what another former vice president under Moi felt- a total massacre at the polls.
I am not a gambler but I am willing to bet that Professor George Saitoti may turn out to be a shade darker than the most golden toast on your breakfast table come the morning after election night.
* An edited version of this article appeared on p.11 of the print edition of the Saturday Standard, February 10, 2007 under the title Mathematician on roller coaster rise-fall-rise tide again.
By Onyango Oloo
He is probably one of the few people in this country who could take a stab at solving Poincare’s Conjecture.
If you woke him up at three o’clock in the morning, he could, if he was in the mood, chat with you for three hours about differential algebraic topology.
Millions of Kenyans know him, but how many are aware that he is listed high among mathematicians of the African diaspora?
I am talking about
Professor George Saitoti-whose 1972 Ph D thesis zoomed in on the arcane subjects alluded to above.
He has been in the public domain so long as a politician that few people remember that he first made his mark as a braniac with a penchant for complex abstract problem solving.
What rushes to mind when the Kajiado North MP is mentioned?
Many people would immediately blurt:
“Moi’s former vice-president”.
Almost an equal number would mouth a Kenyan byword for grand theft:
“Goldenberg Scam”.
For better or for worse, those twin appellations hang around Saitoti’s neck as the infamous albatross on the unfortunate ancient mariner that the poet Coleridge conjured for posterity.
Our lanky professor turned mainstream politician has come very closely to being the State House tenant, having understudied Kenya’s “professor of politics” for close to a decade.
When he was unceremoniously dumped during the “kisirani in Kasarani” in early 2002, many pundits wrote him off as a pesky has been.
But when he romped back to the post-KANU Kibaki cabinet he seemed to have confounded his foes.
In 2006 President Kibaki gave Kenyans a Valentine’s Day gift by announcing on national television that his education minister was stepping aside largely because of the swirling and persistent clouds and ghosts of Goldenberg.
By the end of last July Saitoti’s smirking visage and his triumphalist words on news that he had been cleared of any wrong-doing vis-à-vis that shameful scandal underscored the staying power of the former vice-president.
From his Valentine’s low of yesteryear, Saitoti once again soared giddily in the national limelight when he was restored to his old cabinet post as the drama-drenched 2006 segued into this year.
The foregoing roller-coaster rise-fall-rise tidal ride has perhaps fostered the impression that Professor George Saitoti is a political survivor who will still be standing as the bell ending the fifteenth round tolls.
Perhaps it is with this mindset in mind that the education minister announced, amidst ululations and accompanied by his gyrating and toyi toying resurrected cabinet pal Kiraitu Murungi that he would be going for the chairmanship of the “chama cha maua”.
The swift riposte from his cabinet rival Mukhisa Kituyi was more like a kick in the teeth or a blow to Saitoti’s unsuspecting solar plexus, a veritable reality check that exposed and reminded Kenyans of Saitoti’s vulnerabilities.
Even though President Kibaki hobnobs with former President Daniel arap Moi, it is still politically damaging to highlight close and inner connections with the 39-year old KANU kleptocracy.
The fact that Prof. Saitoti was Moi’s faithful VP for many of those years can certainly NOT be counted as a feather in the education minister’s cap.
Goldenberg had its dubious anti-heroes and Saitoti was one of its most prominent.
The professor may have been acquitted by a duly constituted court of law.
But he is still indicted and convicted in the court of public opinion.
Mukhisa Kituyi was well aware of this Achilles’ heel even as he twisted the knife further on national television a few days ago.
The trade and industry minister knows full well the public disgust and bewilderment at the restoration of disgraced Kenyan public officials tainted by allegations of corruption and abuse of office.
By echoing that national doubt, that country-wide tashwishi in the political credentials of our renowned mathematician, Kituyi was basically asking Kenyans if they could or should trust Saitoti with a higher political position than he currently holds.
The education minister is still dogged by a persistent perception that he is not fit to ascend to the country’s highest office due to the fact that TWO of his bosses- Moi and Kibaki- have demoted him and humiliated him before millions of Kenyans.
The fact that Saitoti is serving Kibaki with the same alacrity, vim and vigour that he once defended the Moi-KANU ancien regime with is not necessarily a merit in his favour. To some observers, he cuts the figure of a cynical opportunist who will do anything to cling on to power and privilege.
Since NARC romped home to victory in December 2002 there has been a growing perception among Kenyans that the parvenu rulers led by Kibaki are becoming virtual clones of their former KANU rivals.
Nothing underscores this than the feeling among millions of Kenyans that the law is there to protect the rich and the courts to keep the powerful out of jail. The “acquittal” of Saitoti on all Goldenberg charges sent a searing, chilly message blaring the word “impunity”.
With all this baggage from the past, will Saitoti make it past the political heats in this year’s feverish parliamentary and presidential face offs?
Those who are in his corner will quickly point how he has weathered many a crisis.
His detractors in ODM for instance, will actually relish his attempt to reach for the top ranks in NARC-Kenya hoping that he becomes a convenient punching bag and source of headline grabbing sound-bites in the coming weeks and months as his opponents point to his graft littered political past which comes as a package with his close collaboration with the leading guns of the Moi one-party dictatorship.
Still, I would venture to caution the Mukhisa Kituyis not to be too smug out there in NARC-Kenya political turf.
Let us not forget that there are other skeletons in the cupboard of the government of national unity. Think Kiraitu Murungi. Wonder out loud how Kituyi himself catapulted from occasional pedestrian to frequent chopper rider.
In fact, depending on how strong the opposition wind blows, it may be doomsday for Kituyi, Saitoti and any of the head honchos in NARC- Kenya jostling for a perch in a possible Kibaki second term from where they can launch their 2012 presidential bids.
If that be the case, Saitoti may find that come December this year he may be experiencing what another former vice president under Moi felt- a total massacre at the polls.
I am not a gambler but I am willing to bet that Professor George Saitoti may turn out to be a shade darker than the most golden toast on your breakfast table come the morning after election night.
* An edited version of this article appeared on p.11 of the print edition of the Saturday Standard, February 10, 2007 under the title Mathematician on roller coaster rise-fall-rise tide again.
