Kalenjins and the Presidency

KALENJINS AND THE PRESIDENCY

By Alex Mwambu

The crave with which Ruto’s kalenjins are pushing him to be Kenya’s president in 2022 leaves me with a lot conclusions as a keen Kenyan. The desperation, the urge and thirst with which Ruto himself is hunting for the presidency backed by his Rift Valley cabal needs some little interrogation.
They threaten, talk bad, talk big, talk money, talk breasts…do this, do that ….do all.
Why the urgency for a kalenjin presidency?? Moi just left the other day after a long time!!!!
Here is the truth.

√Moi,a kalenjin, ruled Kenya for 24 years and the kalenjins benefited from his presidency. Any Kenyan who lived under Moi will testify that kalenjins owned Kenya. They ran roughshod over other communities. They were advantaged and favored in everything. They were policemen, soldiers, parastatal chiefs, clerks, ministers, directors,Dos,Dcs…. everything..even with every little education. In fact the police ascent till today reflects that of the kalenjin..because it was kalenjin owned and dominated. A bigger percentage of government projects went to Rift Valley. Roads were tarmacked where no vehicle passed.

√Kenya belonged to Kalenjins and they owned it fully. No one talked. They were everywhere and you couldn’t do anything in Kenya without their approval. If you wanted anything in any government office, you looked for a Kalenjin friend to escort you to talk your way through.

√Remember the Barngetunys, the Chelugets, the Biwotts, the Cheserems, the Kuleis??…Kenya literally belonged to Kalenjins. They had an unlimited access to statehouse. It was their home.

√They took anything they wanted. All government jobs belonged to them and they could only give away what was left. All government lands belonged to them and they grabbed every parcel. They borrowed agricultural loans from the government institutions, bought tractors, did large scale agriculture and Moi waived it unconditionally.

√Anything that went in the hands of other communities was considered a favor and they were expected to take it with a lot of humility.

√It was all sweet for the long 24yrs until Moi’s reign suddenly dried. They literally cried as power changed hands and Moi boarded a helicopter to Kabarak. They wept. It was unbelievable.

√Since then Kalenjins have thirsted for one of them to be President….. again. They want to go back there. Nothing, no position will quench their thirst other than the presidency. They will only rest if they dominate again.

√During the grand coalition government, Raila gave the kalenjin community alone a whooping 5flags, several assistant ministers, Permanent Secretaries and several other key posts, but they still complained they were shortchanged. It was nothing to a community that had the yam and the knife in their hands for 24yrs.

√Uhuru made Ruto his deputy, gave him a half of the government with authority to do appointments which he gave to kalenjins only but that would not quench their thirst. It was not enough. Ruto went to an early campaign frenzy because his community wants to go back to where they were for 24yrs under moi. They want nothing other than the presidency. They are itching for dominance. They want power like they knew it. They want other communities to be at their feet like they were under moi.
ALL TRIBES MATTER.

And in another development:

DP Ruto’s Hustler Nation

Let me begin with a recollection of something I watched on television in April 2008. It was the burial of pioneer nationalist Jeremiah Nyagah in Mbeere, in now Embu County, attended by the then President Mwai Kibaki.

When the time came for offerings, President Kibaki looked the other way as the basket was passed around.

Embarrassed that his boss had no money to give, the then Head of the Public Service Francis Muthaura quickly gave some money to the President’s aide-de-camp Lt-Col JL Mrashui, who put it in the basket as Kibaki watched with indifference.

Amused by the drama, I related the incident to my friend, retired policeman Essau Kioni, who once served as a security consultant in Kibaki’s State House. He laughed and told me that for all the time he knew Kibaki, he never saw him give money to anybody and doubted that the man ever carried a wallet in his life.

I also shared the story with another friend, former Treasury permanent secretary Charles Mbindyo, who worked with Kibaki when he was Finance minister and was also his economics lecturer at Makerere University.

He told me that in college, Kibaki taught them a theory he practises in life: never give cash to anybody for no work done because that is to spread poverty and encourage a beggar mentality (I guess that is what Kibaki would call a “hustler nation”). Instead, Kibaki told his students in Makerere, “enable people to earn money for themselves, which creates wealth”