By Dorcas Sarkozy
SORRY GOV. KIBWANA BUT KENYANS DON’T VOTE (FOR) COMPETENT LEADERSHIP, THEY VOTE ETHNIC LOYALTY.
Let me cut to the chase and say it:
There is no way in hell Makueni Governor Kivutha Kibwana will be “elected” President of Kenya come 2022!
N.O B.L.O.O.D.Y W.A.Y!
Even more to my main point, the current cycle’s most progressive and development-conscious governor will not be the nominee of any of the major political parties – in the mold of Jubilee Coalition or NASA.
There is no way that a critical mass of Kenyans – across the various ethnic bases – will vote for someone “not of the house” to look after their mainly economic interests.
No one, NOT sanctioned by someone from “the house” will ascend to the presidency of this shithole called Kenya – PERIOD!
A look at the country’s history – since its first republic – is all one needs to draw the sad but realistic conclusion.
Kenya’s past is littered, literally, with corpses of persons who were thought of AND promoted by the public as having the same development-conscious incorruptible and atribal ethos as the sixty-four-year-old Harvard grad and current occupant of State House – Makueni.
Unsurprisingly, the hoopla and optimism surrounding these individuals from Kenya’s past was way before the elections (or what passed for elections then); BEFORE the people screaming themselves hoarse in support of that era’s development-conscious incorruptible and atribal politician/s were alone in the voting booth or forced to oath in a tribesman!
We all know how that turned out – for Tom Mboya, Josiah “Land of 10 Millionaires & 10 Million Beggars” Kariuki, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Robert Ouko, Raila Odinga, Musalia Mudavadi, William Ruto and I’d add the previous parliament’s darling Alfred Mutua.
Mboya, JM and Ouko all committed “suicide”.
Jaramogi was frustrated, detained and subsequently marginalized. Along with Tom Mboya, the two men died as the “best presidents Kenya never had”.
Musalia became a synonym for “madimoni” while pre-handshake “Raira” was condemned to “nefa being plesident”!
Mandeleo Chap Chap “Junior Senator From Illinois” Mutua was stripped bare of any illusions he had of rising beyond his current position as Governor of Machakos by a convenient but strategically-timed series of court challenges.
William Ruto, a founding member of the “digital duo” and Uhuru Kenyatta’s co-CAHs has been reduced to manga mangaring (or is it tanga tangaring?) around the country seeing Raila everywhere he goes and spewing incorrigible toxicity and platitudes – depending on his audience! Any illusions William Ruto had of smooth-sailing into the seat occupied by erstwhile “Ndugu” Uhuru have been given a harsh reality check by the cabal surrounding “ndugu”.
The foregoing events are proof-positive that Kenyans have never been serious about supporting competent, development-minded non-ethnic-based leadership. Not since Jomo Kenyatta was released from detention and made, as a condition for receiving well-wishers, “well-wishes”!
Since then, the country’s top job has been seen, not as a mechanism for public service i.e. serving the public, but as a vehicle for amassing wealth and simultaneously rewarding tribesmen/women and toadies alike.
First it was the kitchen cabinet from and around Gatundu. The “Kiambu Mafia” solidified the GEMA (Gikuyu, Embu and Meru) into a formidable voting (and socio-economic) bloc. This they did shortly after independence – until 1978 when the grabber-in-chief Jomo died.
Thereafter, what was supposed to be the “passing cloud” from Kabarak ossified into 24-year reign of God knows what! Arap Moi solidified the amalgamation of the Kalenjin, Maasai, Turkana and Sambura into a solid KAMATUSA voting bloc.
Between the first government of Jomo and successor Moi, any and all credible competition – perceived and/or real – was eliminated and/or co-opted (read bought off).
Jomo’s “Kiambu Mafia” and Moi’s “Kabarak Cabal” was replaced by Mwai Kibaki’s “Mt. Kenya Mafia” that was then inherited by Uhuru Kenyatta. Ironically, it was left to Raila Odinga to cement Kibaki’s 1st Term with the now-famous “Kibaki Tosha” rallying cry.
Kibaki second term in 2007 begun with a swearing under cover of darkness followed by post-election violence which paved the way for the kakistocracy now saddling Kenyans with an untenable amount of debt while fattening their collective wallets.
My point in this brief re-hashing of Kenya’s “electoral” history is to underscore, in no uncertain terms, that WHILE the idea of a Kivutha Kibwana presidency sounds and looks great, indeed rational and predicated on the man’s performance as governor thus far, Kenyans have repeatedly “elected” persons, not because they are the most qualified of the candidates, but because of their tribal affiliation or sycophancy to some tribal or clannish demi-god.
If Kenyans saw and appreciated competence and “tribeless” leadership, Jomo would have been a one-term first president as would have been his predecessor Moi.
If Kenyans looked at the performance, tenor and timbre of their leaders, the incompetent, despotic and authoritarian comportment of her first two presidents would have banished that manner of leadership and anyone associated with them into the dustbin of political have-beens!
The one time it did that was during the waning days of Arap Moi’s lost decades.
In declaring that “all is possible without Moi”, a true plurality of Kenyans bundled off what truly should have been a “passing cloud” – the man’s presidency – and ushered in the supposedly technocratic uncorruptible Mwai Kibaki presidency.
We all saw the religious return-to-a-tribal-based-kleptocracy-ready-to-retain-power-by-any-means-necessary in 2007/8 after Kibaki’s first term. And the man’s godson Uhuru has been the worst of the bunch: An incompetent and entitled hypocrite.
So please, save me this new-found desire for competent “tribeless” leadership.
You and I, along with Makuenian Kivutha Kibwana, all know that come 2022, each one of us will slither back to our ethnic corner and find a slogan to replace “Kumira Kumira” and “Tibim/Tialala” with Kibwana nowhere to be seen – let alone heard!
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