Musyimi: I have a dream for Kenya

The name of Gachoka MP Mutava Musyimi does not attract obvious attention when Kenyans discuss the Kibaki succession. A huge majority of voters do not see the Rev Musyimi as a likely successor to President Kibaki when he bows out of State House.

At least that is the verdict delivered to researchers from several polling companies who have conducted surveys across the country since President Kibaki’s final term began.

The Rev Musyimi’s name does not appear on the radar screen, but undeterred by such findings, he has thrown his hat in the ring and readied himself for the race to State House.

He becomes the first cleric from the mainstream churches to seek the presidency. Before him there was evangelical Bishop Pius Muiru, who received a memorable thrashing in the 2007 presidential election. Bishop Muiru has since disappeared from the political stumps and concentrated on the pulpit.

Now the time has come for the Rev Musyimi to dip his toe into waters that have for long been regarded by the religious fraternity as murky and in need of lots of cleaning.

But he told the Sunday Nation that he doesn’t count the church to be his home political constituency and almost appears to be wondering how to shake off the easy label of “church candidate”.

The Gachoka MP told the Sunday Nation that he was driven out of the pulpit and into parliamentary politics by a gnawing frustration that the numerous sermons and press conferences religious leaders and organisations were delivering never appeared to move the political class to act on the needs of the citizens.

Not even private visits and memoranda prepared for President Moi during his days in office and for President Kibaki seemed to be moving the centre to respond to the concerns of ordinary Kenyans, he said.

In his mind, had President Kibaki listened to him and the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK) executive council in 2006 and 2007, Kenya would not have plunged into violence after the controversial 2007 presidential tally.

First, the Rev Musyimi had visited the President on Wednesday, February 22, 2006. Accompanying him was the NCCK chairman at the time, Anglican Archbishop Eliud Wabukala, and other church leaders.

There at State House, the Rev Musyimi, as the group’s spokesperson, faced the President, who had also brought with him some of his key lieutenants from the Cabinet.

The group told the President there was simmering discontent across the country. The report of the Akiwumi Commission had delved into the question of land clashes in 1992 and 1997 and proposed what must be done to end them.

Former President Moi had appointed the commission. Its report, which was later to be referred to extensively by the Kriegler Commission, lay gathering dust, unattended. None of its recommendations had been implemented, and the delegation of clergymen asked the President to attend to the matter.

Then there was the report of the Ndung’u Commission that had investigated land-grabbing and pointed to areas that needed attention. Would the President kindly look into that as well, the team of clerics petitioned.

Thirdly, they brought to the attention of the President that Kenyans were unhappy that there was little or nothing happening on the Goldenberg front. The commission chaired by Justice Samuel Bosire had uncovered one of the best-laid plans to defraud taxpayers of billions of shillings, but then the steam appeared to have run out of its efforts.

“These reports, together with the issues surrounding the Anglo Leasing scam, form the core of the country’s transition agenda,” the Rev Musyimi and his team told the President.

One year after that meeting, not only had the complaints and murmurs in the public domain grown louder, but the issues raised at the private meeting appeared not to have received sufficient attention.

At the beginning of 2007, the Rev Musyimi again sought audience with the President. The appointment was set for Monday, March 26, at State House. Again, a number of top clerics and the President’s key allies attended.

The Rev Musyimi ran through the issues that they had raised with the President the previous year and asked that the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission and the Attorney-General be given a specific timeframe within which to prosecute the suspects of “well-documented scandals”.

In addition, they told the President that the fighting then underway in Mt Elgon was making Kenyans uncomfortable.

The clerics also told the President that he should strongly consider consulting opposition parties in appointing members of the electoral commission that would oversee the 2007 General Election. The President ignored them.

As the year 2007 wore on, the Rev Musyimi became weary of the political class and decided he would run for MP under the PNU wing. He hoped that President Kibaki would win a second term and include him in the new Cabinet from where he would be able to influence decisions. That never came to pass.

“I realised that even PNU ina wenyewe (has its owners),” he said. So in 2009, he decided that the ideals he had fought for as a pastor at the Nairobi Baptist Church and through the NCCK would never be actualised unless he ran for President and did it himself.

“Now I’m going round the country. I have been to the Rift Valley and other places, listening to the people. It’s the greatest way this can be done when people are involved in their own decision making,” the Rev Musyimi said.

He doesn’t worry about how to raise campaign funds and believes that those who talk about billions for the venture are way off the mark.

“About Sh500 million will do it, and we can raise that from Kenyans,” he said.