By Nyainda Manaseh
During Raila Odinga’s unceremonial stint as the Prime Minister, there was a coterie around Mwai Kibaki that was determined to erect stumble each step of his way.
Led by the then Head of Public Service Francis Muthaura, and subsequently, Francis Kimemia, it was acting at the behest of a literally non-existent, but structurally pervasive deep-state.
From nefarious night meetings; arbitrary rescinding on joint state decisions; systematically clipping Prime Minister’s powers; deployment of security apparatus to surveil on him, and to contracting certain renowned editors within media circles to orchestrate smear campaign, Mr. Odinga witnessed first-hand the dark side of the belligerent deep-state.
There is a delusional lie that some of us who supported Raila Odinga then consumed line, hook and sinker.
That the frustrations he was being subjected to by the state pre-2017 would have earned him sympathy, and ultimately victory. Nothing was further from the truth. It never counted. And it will never count for William.
Now, ever than before, the phantom hand of the state in William Ruto’s woes is bequeathing public discourse a hush-talked-of-lexicon of the deep state, simply put- system. The workings of the deep-state have never been exhaustively canvassed because of the secrecy shrouding it..
But there is a popular belief of an existence of a deeply-entrenched cabal made up of phantom figures drawn from the intelligence agencies, corporate sector, government bureaucracy, and specific families, which determines the policy direction of a country, the media agenda, information flow, bureaucratic appointments, and electoral outcomes.
One common characteristic is that this cabal controls factors of production like capital, land, enterprises, and as labourers, we are subservient to them. And don’t misconstrue Mount Kenya Mafia to mean deep state- it is a subsidiary entity within the deep state.
Deep state is intrinsically a government within a government and a law unto itself. If at any point a matter is classified as a national security issue, stay woke. The deep state is hovering.
But I digress.
In the USA, John D Rockefeller was the world’s first billionaire and the richest in history, with a family that constituted a system that has now earned itself the sobriquet- Washington System. His influence is felt to date.
Through the original 7-sister oil companies – Shell, Mobil, Chevron, Gulf Oil, Exxon, Texaco, and BP – that was formed in 1920s, Rockefeller, the most prominent face of the Washington System, and his associates, built a powerful system with investment portfolio that rivaled and penetrated the government.
Even in his death, he still has a hand in deciding who becomes President in US.
Currently, the United States’ military budget for the year 2020-2021 is 934 billion US dollars. Yet, the Lockheed Martin’s company long-standing informal alliance with US military agency, through the military-industrial complex, influences military policy and is the biggest beneficiary of US military procurement.
If one company can determine where 93 trillion Kenyan shillings is spent, you don’t need rocket science to know it is a deep state. If there are figures who determine our budget policy from the closet, you don’t need to be reminded who they are and what they are capable of.
I come back to Kenya.
The mystery of the deep-state in Kenya can be pointed to an alliance of the home-guards that supported the colonialists’ quest, and perched itself at the top of state largesse after independence.
Through imperial powers, Kenyatta acquired large tracts of land and allocated some to his cronies- the proverbial court poets- who ended up investing in other sectors. They bestrode Kenya’s government like a colossus, infiltrating ministries and sitting behind closed doors to determine the government’s policy direction.
If their schemes near failure, they often resort to the services of the grim reaper.
What most William Ruto’s supporters term as humiliation is just a tip of the iceberg of what Raila Odinga and by extension his father, the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga underwent. Yet, the man has no balls to come out and call crap by its name.
Instead of facing the system’s left hand itself – Uhuru Kenyatta- William has turned his guns to bogeymen in the name of Raila, Murathe, Tuju, Atwoli et cetera. These are not fixers; these ones are trumpets.
He who pays the piper, calls the tune, so goes the saying. Murathe draws his salary from Statehouse budget as a private assistant to the Head of State. He has been sent by Uhuru.
Raila Odinga has had supporters who would take bullet on his behalf, crazy online terrorists and the popular vote of the people, but he’s just been smelling power.
William Ruto has a bunch of supporters, the so called hypnotic hustlers, and online bots. Coupled with the likes of Sudi, Didmus, Ndindi and Kuria as his friends, he needs no enemy.
As he takes the infamous path of self-destruction, he should stop pulling God’s name into his self-inflicted problems. God has done enough for us by creating us, giving us a nation and brains to think.
We squandered that chance to transform our nation though we still have the opportunity to reverse this. Now, he has no role in our election, we do. Our work is to vote, and the system is to decide.
Unless you have just landed from jupiter, then welcome to Kenya.