By G Oguda via Facebook
I have seen too much mud being hurled; led by government propaganda outlet – The Daily Nation – regarding Raila Odinga’s no-show at Mama Lucy Kibaki’s send-off this afternoon, in Othaya.
The Daily Nation even went ahead and tweeted an empty seat reserved for Raila Odinga at the VIP pavilion full with the funeral programme and water bottle. That image has since set the agenda for another Raila Odinga online bashing by the squeaky wagons being oiled from State House leaking pumps, asking why Raila Odinga would miss the funeral of his Grand Coalition partner, whom he served alongside with between 2008 and 2013.
Let me tell you something.
If there is one man Daily Nation should tell us where he was when Mwai Kibaki was burying his wife, that man is Daniel Toroitich wuod Moi.
The little children manning the digital desk at Nation Media might not know this but due to his failing health and advancing age, Founding Father Jomo Kenyatta had been advised by the Kiambu Mafia against running for a fourth term. When Kenya went to the polls in 1974, Jomo Kenyatta was about to celebrate his 83rd birthday, and his state of physical health was a worry to the Kikuyu inner circle.
He was visibly clumsy, painstakingly boring, those who went to entertain him at State House Nakuru kept reporting that Jomo would slide into sleep when the ‘show’ was still on. Martin Meredith writes, that at some point Jomo Kenyatta would sleep watching tv and his aides would quietly tip-toe to the room, switch off the thing and quietly wheel away a half-comatose Kenyatta to his bedroom.
When Jomo refused to back down from grooming another Kikuyu to take over from where his health had reached, in the 1974 polls, the Kikuyu Mafia regrouped and decided to take the war to the then Vice President Moi; who was constitutionally the automatic heir to the throne. They made sure, that other than the Vice Presidency which Jomo had refused to untag Moi from, all the other powerful cabinet slots went to the innermost Kiambu Mafia State running rings around the President and shielding his Deputy Moi from the GEMA political schemes bubbling under.
The 3 most powerful ministries went to:
1. Mbiyu Koinange: Jomo Kenyatta’s bossom buddy, and brother-in-law (Jomo’s 3rd wife, Grace Wanjiku, was Koinange’s sister), the ruthless head of Jomo Kenyatta’s inner core, Minister for State in the Office of the President, and MP for Kiambaa. This guy was the power behind Jomo Kenyatta’s presidency. His word, in State House, was law.
2. James Gichuru: Minister for Defence, and MP for Limuru. This is the guy who handed over the reigns of KANU to Jomo Kenyatta after his release from detention. He had hoped, and wrongly so, that Kenyatta would ‘return the hand’ and declare him ‘Tosha’ when the old man was about to close his eyes to the world.
3. Mwai Kibaki: Minister for Finance and Planning, and first time MP for Othaya who had fled from defending his Doonholm seat (in Nairobi) after it was clear a certain Ms. Jael Mbogo was going to whip him at the 1974 polls. He came with the advantage of being relatively young, had the best brain of the lot, humble and truthful politician who did not show his ambition to be president and commanded respect of many Kenyans mostly outside his tribal areas. If the Kiambu Mafia State’s beef with ‘the rest of Kenya’ backfired, they had lined up Mwai Kibaki – from Nyeri – to take over as a compromise Kikuyu candidate, while they groomed another Kiambu violent insider.
Their plans to rule this country for life was dealt a hammer blow when nature, and time, conspired to hand minnow Daniel Moi the Presidency.
True to the Kikuyu Mafia’s fears, Jomo did not stay long afterwards. When Jomo Kenyatta died in his sleep in August 1978, few Kikuyus were left in doubt on who would be the next President after Vice President Daniel Moi had overseen the 90-day constitutional transition and called for fresh polls. The clear frontrunner was Mbiyu Koinange.
Charles Hornsby writes, in his groundbreaking book ‘Kenya: A History Since Independence’, and I quote; “…Daniel Arap Moi came to power as the titular head of a coalition opposed to the continued dominance of the Kenyatta family and the Kiambu elite, although he had been sustained by Kenyatta’s ambivalent support…”
And there were no prizes for guessing which direction the axe swung first immediately after being sworn in as President. On 11 October 1978, the day after he became President, Moi’s first act of political butchery was directed at the powerful Minister for State, Mbiyu Koinange – stripping his docket to bare bones by removing the Police and Provincial Administration from his Ministry.
The biggest beneficiary of President Moi’s cabinet reshuffle fell to Emilio Stanley Mwai Kibaki, who was appointed Vice President, in an open show at calming the frayed Kikuyu nerves.
Charles Hornsby adds, in the same book, and I quote, that; “… the reason Moi chose Kibaki (as VP) remains confidential, but it was an obvious choice. He was a key ally: clever, respected, at the centre of government, Kikuyu, (and most importantly) unlikely to scheme against his new leader…”
You could also see that Moi was adversely isolated, because, unlike Kenyatta, Moi did not have a clique of educated, able, experienced, and trusted tribesmen around him. At the time Moi took over in 1978, there were no Kalenjin parastatal executives, businessmen or even senior politicians. The only Kalenjin in Nairobi worth mentioning, at that time, on whom he could rely, was his personal assistant Nicholas Biwott. Moi’s back was even further stuck against the political wall because, unlike Kenyatta, he was neither charismatic nor a father-figure. The only reason he had held on the Vice Presidency, for 11 years, was that he was a compromise candidate. “He had survived because of his loyalty, good networks among the non-Kikuyu, and a patient, unassuming, non-confrontational posture” (This is the reason Kikuyus will never trust William Ruto with the Presidency.)
You could clearly see, therefore, that Mwai Kibaki rescued President Moi’s sinking ship, during his first days in office. Had it not been for Kibaki’s loyalty and professionalism, he could have easily penned a deal with the visibly enraged Kiambu Mafia and dethroned Moi before he could gain his political foothold. But the ever-calm Mwai Kibaki didn’t. And thanks to him, fortunately and unfortunately, Moi quickly learnt the ropes and metamorphosed into a virulent crackpot tyrant worse than Jean-Bedel Bokassa.
Yet this gentlemen who deflected the Kiambu Mafia knife from Daniel Moi’s throat did not see his former bossom ally, turned staunch foe, as he eerily laid his larger-than-life wife to rest, today.
But Daily Nation will not ask what became of the man who was rescued straight out of the dungeons of hell; and was diligently and loyally deputised for 10 years, before he decided to give thanks by booting this professional gentleman whose only crime, at the time, was to harbour presidential ambitions.
They will only turn the lenses on Raila Odinga; a man whose hard-earned political food was snatched right from his salivating mouth in 2007, and forced into an acrimonious marriage with a man obsessed with cutting his legs and hiring a brutal political gang to keep him in check at every turn.
If The Daily Nation exists to set the agenda of this country to that of inciting the Kikuyu public against Raila Odinga, let them not come back to Kenyans with hollow messages of peace, after the social media tensions will have reached fever-pitch, when the 2017 elections will be around the corner.
You have made your bed, be prepared to lie in it.
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