The inappropriate speech

December 30, 2002 marked the end of 40 years of Kanu’s dictatorship and its culture of political backwardness, and was a day like no other in Kenya’s history.

Gone was the era, many believed, when the whims, follies and foibles of one man and his cabal of sycophants were a law unto themselves.

Never again would the fortunes of so many lie in the irresponsible hands of a few, or so many we believed as Mwai Kibaki was sworn in as the third president of the Republic of Kenya and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.

In a wheelchair and one leg still in a plaster cast, the president stared not so much at the forest of humanity in front of him, but into the future.

That he was being sworn in a wheelchair was a poignant confirmation of his party’s clarion call that yote yawezekana (everything is possible)! The efficacy of the people had been restored.

Vengeful speech

However, his speech to usher in a new epoch has been derided as vengeful and unstatesman-like.

Those of a different persuasion praise it for capturing what Germans call the zeitgeist — the spirit and mood of the time. We had just yanked ourselves free from the jaws of a vicious and dictatorial kleptocracy which didn’t deserve a single kind phoneme, let alone a word, they say.

I was there, covering the inauguration for the EastAfrican, and it was evident Kenyans were in no mood for homilies. The nation needed to vent a 40-year anger.

The truth of the matter is that, looked critically, the president’s speech was carefully balanced and long on pathos, vision, sobriety, eloquence, reflection and other hallmarks of great oratory.

He captured the spirit of hope that swept across the nation, from Vanga to Wajir, Busia to Liboi with the words:

“I was woken up this morning by rays of sunlight, which had bathed my room in such brilliance that it felt completely new. I began to notice things around me in great detail. It was as if the room had been given a facelift. I looked out of the window and, behold, a cloudless sky! The trees danced lazily, enjoying the early morning breeze. I looked far into the horizon and the beauty of what I saw around me stirred my soul. It was as if I was standing atop Mount Kenya surveying the landscape. I said to myself ‘Oh, what a beautiful country!’”

The new president imbued the nation with a yes-we-can spirit by underlining the unlimited potential of unity.

“Look around you, see what a gorgeous constellation of stars we are, just look at this dazzling mosaic of people of various ethnic backgrounds, race, creed, sex, age, experience, and social status. Never in the history of this country have its leaders come together and worked so hard together as on indivisible entity with one vision. It is the love of Kenya that has brought us together. We chose to let go our individual differences and personal ambitions in order to save this nation.”

And he made a promise which, unfortunately, didn’t stand the test of time. To the skeptics, he said:

“Some prophets of doom have predicted a vicious in-fighting following this victory. I want to assure you that they will be disappointed. When a group of people come together over an idea or because of a shared vision, such a group can never fail or disintegrate. NARC (the National Rainbow Coalition) will never die as long as the original vision endures. It will grow stronger and coalesce into a single party that will become a beacon of hope not only to Kenyans but also to the rest of Africa.

“This is a critical moment in the history of our country. The task ahead is enormous, the expectations are high; the challenges are intimidating. But I know that, with your support and co-operation, we shall turn all our problems into opportunities.”

He was also magnanimous, and offered Narc’s competitors a hand of friendship.