By Reinard Kimaru
Mutahi Ngunyi was one of the most widely read newspaper columnists in the early 2000s. He got hold of Robert Green’s 48 Laws of Power (that manifesto of control freaks, maniacs and psychotic people), and he decided to be Kenya’s Robert Green. Robert Green is not a scholar and his best-selling book failed every scholarly scrutiny and his book was dismissed as well-marketed bullshit. It was not researched at all, and was super self-contradicting.
It is clear how poor he is a scholar or researcher. His most quoted book is 48 Laws of Power and Sun Tzu’s Art of war. He is also a big fan of that medieval creep, Niccolo` Machiavelli, who taught future politicians that immorality, dishonesty and killing of innocent people as being effective in politics. With a few convenient Aesop fables, he became the ‘smartest’ political analyst.
A poor imitator and believer of Niccolò Machiavelli, Ngunyi believes in manipulation as the most effective strategy in grabbing and retaining power. A brief background is key.
If you went to the University of Nairobi’s main campus, and studied Political Science, you would have known that Mutahi Ngunyi is a fraud. While working with FORD Foundation, together with a Zimbabwean Jonathan Moyo, they defrauded the NGO and both quit. Moyo went on to be Zimbabwe’s Minister of Information, (any surprise!) and currently the Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education. The two seem to like mediocre governments where their mediocrity can be tolerated.
In the late 2000s, his relevance would diminish. The Nation tried to resurrect his career, during the last elections, but by then everyone and their mothers had read 48 Laws of Power and Machiavelli, and everyone has access to the internet, so he could not boast exclusive ownership to knowledge. He was the right person for the Jubilee to use for a psychological prepper “tyranny of number” ahead of the rigging of the 2013 elections.
To dimwits and tribal chauvinists, he was political genius. Thinking individuals knew that that was a psychological manipulation move to justify the nefarious rigging that witnessed. Having been used in 2013, he would be rewarded “consultancy” services to the Ministry of Devolution when he was alleged to have received millions to paint the sky blue.
His relevance has been diminishing. Many Kikuyus and in deed anybody now know he is just a rent seeker who will say anything to be in the government payroll. His homosexual fixation with Raila Odinga is quite telling. He reads mischief in every truth Raila unleashes. Like most Central Kenya legislators of average IQ, his job description is to twist Raila Odinga’s message to portray him as an enemy of the people of Central Kenya. He has been leading the charge that Raila is not prepared for elections and only wants anarchy because he thrives in anarchy. Yet we know who thrives in anarchy in Kenya.
Lately he earns his keep from YouTube where he runs some shitty “Fort Hall School of Government”. Realizing that he is not getting any younger and bullshit has some age limit, he has employed some bimbos and some young men who are as charming as boiled cabbage somewhere in Nyeri, to peddle his half-baked, seriously stupid things that they camouflage in good language. But you look into the eyes of young men and women and Mutahi himself and you realise how desperate they are.
You wonder what will happen when Raila becomes the president on August 8. How will stay relevant. Or would that be the best time to move to some banana republic to peddle his nonsense where people have not read Sun Tzu, and Machiavelli.
Next time you see Mutahi Ngunyi in your timeline, delete, and ignore him until he disappears from our public conscience. Remember him as a man who defended a regime that was responsible for the worst corruption in the history of the world, of which he participated in the looting, as people died in hospitals because doctors and nurses were on strike, kids stayed home without teachers, the price of unga went through the roof, and many families slept hungry as the regime tried to make political capital out of the stage-managed misfortunes.
Any man who draws his inspiration from the most manipulative strategies should not be entertained, by any right thinking individual, whether they support Raila or not.
Leave a Reply