Uhuru, the son of Kenyatta heading for powerful seat

April 21st, 2009

Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta (born October 26, 1961) is a Kenyan politician, currently serving as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance. He was born when this nation became a nation. Mzee Jomo Kenyatta’s youngest son was given the name that symbolized Kenya’s freedom by President Kibaki when he was born. Mwai Kibaki is his god father.

He is the Chairman of Kenya African National Union (KANU), the former ruling party, which is currently part of the Party of National Unity (PNU). Nominated to Parliament in 2001, he became Minister for Local Government under President Daniel arap Moi and, despite his political inexperience, was favored by President Moi as his successor; Kenyatta ran as KANU's candidate in the December 2002 presidential election, but lost to opposition candidate Mwai Kibaki by a large margin.

He subsequently became Leader of the Opposition in Parliament. He backed Kibaki for re-election in the December 2007 presidential election and was named Minister of Local Government by Kibaki in January 2008, before becoming Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade in April 2008 as part of a coalition government. His name, Uhuru, is Swahili for "freedom".

 His contribution to nation building to this date is negative. He did not choose politics, rather politics chose him. We can easily trace back his political roots. He did not vie for a seat to parliament. Mark Too resigned so that a way could be paved for Uhuru Kenyatta to become a nominated MP. He was then named the Minister for Local Government and later named a successor to Moi. His initial entry into politics came through his election as the chairman of his hometown branch of the ruling party, KANU, in 1997. This came with the tacit approval of President Moi. At the time, many saw the election as a calculated move to prepare Uhuru for bigger things.

In the general election held the same year, Uhuru contested the Gatundu South Constituency parliamentary seat, once held by his father. It was assumed he would sail through but that was not be. Uhuru lost to Moses Mwihia, a little-known Nairobi architect. After losing the election, Uhuru's friends say that he was extremely upset and that he vowed to quit politics altogether. He hurriedly retreated to the family business empire that includes five-star tourist hotels, airlines and commercial farming. Little did Uhuru know that President Moi was still intent on propelling him onto the national political scene.

In 1999 Moi appointed Uhuru the new chairman of the Kenya Tourism Board, where he worked with Kenya's political power-broker Nicholas Biwott, a very close confidante of the president. Apparently the young Uhuru was undergoing even more intensive training. Then came October 2001 and Uhuru was nominated to parliament and subsequently to the cabinet as Minister for Local Government. In March of that year Uhuru Kenyatta made it big on the national political scene when he was elected as one of the four national vice-chairmen of KANU. President Moi paid a heavy price for ensuring Kenyatta was KANU's presidential candidate, with several senior party figures, their own ambitions thwarted, resigning to set up another party (the Liberal Democratic Party).

In the presidential election held on December 27, 2002, Kenyatta was soundly defeated by opposition leader Mwai Kibaki, taking only 31% of the vote against 62% for Kibaki; this marked the end of KANU's continuous 39 years of rule since independence. Many attributed Kenyatta's defeat to his association with the retiring President Moi, whose long rule was widely regarded as hopelessly corrupt and ineffectual. He was also seen to be lacking experience and his campaign team lacked the big names, most of whom had left KANU to join the opposition NARC. Despite losing the presidential election, Uhuru Kenyatta won an MP seat at the Gatundu south constituency for the first time ever.

Since he joined Moi's inner circle, Uhuru Kenyatta has been fighting to prove that he is his own man and not Moi's stooge. In late January 2005, Uhuru Kenyatta defeated Nicholas Biwott for chairmanship of KANU, taking 2,980 votes among party delegates against Biwott's 622. Uhuru led his party KANU in Campaigns against the draft constitution in 2005, having teamed up with the Liberal Democratic Party to form the Orange Democratic Movement. This saw Kenyans humiliate the government by rejecting the draft constitution by a noticeable margin.

In November 2006, Kenyatta was displaced as KANU leader by Biwott, although Kenyatta said he would not accept the decision. On December 28, 2006, the High Court of Kenya reinstated Uhuru Kenyatta as KANU chairman. However, further court proceedings followed. On June 28, 2007, the High Court confirmed Kenyatta as party leader, ruling that there was insufficient evidence for Biwott's argument that Kenyatta had joined another party.

On September 13, 2007, Kenyatta withdrew from the December 2007 presidential election and said that he would back Kibaki for re-election. He said that he did not want to run unless he could be sure of winning. This was the beginning of Uhuru’s reversal into the political tribal cocoons that encompass out politics in Kenya. It was not that Uhuru did not want to run unless he was sure of winning, it was just that Uhuru curved under pressure from his tribesmen not to run against Mwai Kibaki, his god father and the man who had him soundly in the previous elections.

Uhuru was afraid of a falling away with his tribesmen and also saw no opportunity of running under the platform of the Orange Democratic Movement of Kenya which was already a crowded house with six other candidates eyeing the presidency At a time when he should have been a nationalist, Uhuru reverted back to tribalism. Significantly, he was the first ever opposition leader to decamp and join the government side and this raised many political, legal and constitutional implications and ramifications. Many people feel that Uhuru betrayed the trust bestowed upon him by the nation because the Leader of the Opposition is an official position which automatically comes as a result of an election and is a testimony to the other 31% of Kenyans who chose to vote the way they did. It also comes as a custodian of the public’s property, a watchman of the people.

Following the election, which proved extremely controversial, Kibaki was declared the victor despite claims of fraud from challenger Raila Odinga and his Orange Democratic Movement. Kibaki appointed Kenyatta as Minister for Local Government on January 8, 2007. After Kibaki and Odinga reached a power-sharing agreement, Kenyatta was named Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade on April 13, 2008, as part of the Grand Coalition Cabinet. He is the Deputy Prime Minister representing the PNU, while another Deputy Prime Minister, Musalia Mudavadi, represents the ODM. Kenyatta and the rest of the Cabinet were sworn in on April 17.  Kenyatta was moved from the post of Minister for Trade to that of Minister for Finance on January 23, 2009, while remaining Deputy Prime Minister.

To his supporters Uhuru Kenyatta is a visionary leader. To his detractors the heavy-smoking and heavy drinking man is a reluctant politician and an indecisive man. Being the son of Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, Uhuru's upbringing was deeply steeped in politics. The family has vast tracts of land reputed to be as huge as one single province in Kenya if put together. This kind of land brings great contention because it was acquired and not bought legally. It is land his father illegally took as President and which rightly belongs to the nation. The N’dugu Land Report has remained controversial and has never been implemented because of such vested personal interests.

The bigger question however is this: how can a man who has been involved with the proscribed and violent Mungiki gang of murders be trusted to lead a nation that is so polarized? Would this man truly represent the interests of Kenyans? Many people have seen Uhuru go to public meetings and address them in kikuyu. His backers are predominantly from his province. He does not cut the figure of a nationalist. Neither does he have mass appeal. Rather he seems to represent the status quo and does not understand the poor Kenyan’s plight having been born with all the trappings of wealth and power. Is Uhuru being judged harshly? He was involved in the revenge killings in Navasha and it is believed that he organized them. He has publicly declared that he is ready to face the local tribunal (and not The Hague). He has moved to court to have his name expunged from any accusations of involvement in the killings.

Uhuru Mwigai Kenyatta showed his hand when he was given the very first opportunity as Local Government Minister by being divisive at a time when the country was deeply in division. He was presented with names of nominated councilors and he rejected that of Esther Passaris. For reasons best known to him, he decided to be vindictive and to pursue personal vendetta instead of doing his job. You may be your business. You may be a solo-practitioner, providing your skill set for hire. But the business is not you.

A business is a separate legal entity and Passaris had removed herself from the management of her company. This was done preemptively because she wanted to vie for public office. Can we argue today that as Trade Minister, with all their extensive family businesses, Uhuru has undue advantage over others and can actually use that advantage for personal or family benefit? If that is the case, then Uhuru is not fit to be our Trade Minister due to conflict of interests. If we use the same yardstick that he used as a measurement of our judgments, then he should not be holding that particular office today just like Esther Passaris was not allowed by him to hold public office. Knowing that Passaris would have probably become the mayor, Uhuru decided to be partisan. Passaris was probably the best mayor we never had. But the larger issue that we need to deal with is this, if Uhuru were President, would he take such partisan view of public matters?

The Jury is out there but Uhuru Kenyatta cannot be the best leader that this country can produce. I believe that there are other better leaders. We need to be careful when we talk about him being a perfect President. There are two people who I would personally not want to be President in this nation and the two are Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto. As contrasted with Uhuru, Ruto has great brains, is articulate and is a mover of crowds. He is charismatic and has great ideas. The two however have one thing in common. They both have blood on their hands and the people of this nation know it. They seemed to be the ones making the most noise about The Hague and the tribunal and there are obvious reasons why. Today this is an issue that has been forgotten.

However we cannot forget the role of these two people in the bloodshed that happened during the post election violence. They are thus both unfit to be leaders of this nation, Uhuru more so because he stands for nothing of substance. I don’t know what this man stands for. Does anyone? He is shifty and undecided. At one time he was in the opposition and then he crossed over to the government side. He does not have a spine, no backbone at all. How can such a man make a perfect leader for this country? Lately, his uncle has been involved in questionable dealings within the Kenya Airports Authority. This is where the dynastic rule comes into play.

Why should we elect another Kenyatta and there are many other people equally fit if not better suited to run this nation? If anything is to go by, Uhuru will divide this country further not because he’s Kikuyu, but because he represents the status quo and would want to protect the interests of the rich. But being a kikuyu does not help either because Kibaki has proved to us that the Kikuyu, at least those who have had a taste of power cannot be trusted. Mutahi Ngunyi’s analysis of why Kibaki would want an Uhuru Presidency or a Saitoti Presidency is quite interesting and insightful. According to his analysis, these two would only be installed upon us to protect and preserve the status quo, the rich. Mutahi is of the view that they can even be rigged in. We need to look to progressive leadership and not maintain the status quo.

 

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