Karume incurred politicians’ wrath

If in recent times the Kikuyu people have ever had anyone approximating a paramount chief, that mantle would undoubtedly have fallen on Njenga Karume.

President Kenyatta and President Kibaki may, by virtue of their positions, have rated as the premier community leaders during their respective tenures at State House, but that does not take away the special place Mr Karume occupied.

Hence the surprise that when Mr Karume — for more than a generation the acknowledged leader of the Gikuyu, Embu Meru Association (Gema) — for some reason moved in his waning days to get himself installed as a Kikuyu elder at the Mukurwe-wa-Nyagathanga shrine in Muranga at the end of October last year, politicians allied to President Kibaki’s putative political heir, Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, reacted with fury.

They saw in it a scheme to install Mr Karume as the ultimate Kikuyu leader and spokesman, in the process undermining Mr Kenyatta’s claim to the community leadership.

Most of the fury was driven by suggestions at the time that Mr Karume was among a group of wealthy and influential Kikuyu leaders and businessmen warming up to, and possibly willing to back Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s presidential bid.

Mr Kenyatta by then had already made considerable headway in securing the bulk of the Kikuyu support for his own presidential quest.

It was a campaign based very much on a “Stop Raila” strategy that was fuelled mainly by blaming the PM for the misfortunes facing Mr Kenyatta and co-accused in the International Criminal Court move against suspected perpetrators of Kenya’s post-election violence.

That Mr Karume would consort with the “enemy” greatly offended Mr Kenyatta’s supporters, who went into overdrive with vicious attacks against the ageing patriarch.

Mr Wachira Kiago, who claimed to be the bona fide chairman of the Kikuyu Council of Elders, wrote:

“The planned ceremony is mischievous, hypocritical and a travesty of the Kikuyu community’s aspirations.

“Hon Njenga Karume and his group are motivated by the impending 2012 General Election and are positioning themselves as the ultimate leaders of the Kikuyu and by extension Gema.

“Their ultimate plan is to auction the communities to the highest bidder!”

Mr Joakim Gitonga, signing himself off as the chairman of Murang’a elders, was even more direct:

“The ceremony is unnecessary because the central region already has a leader in Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta”.

The ceremony went ahead, but it was no doubt marred by the vociferous objections, revealing the political undercurrents at play.

Other than Mr Karume, a number of other Kikuyu tycoons have attracted the wrath of Mr Kenyatta’s supporters because they were seen to be seeking rapprochement with Mr Odinga.

They include Equity Bank chairman Peter Munga, who was one of the prominent personalities at Mr Karume’s “crowning” and who in recent times has emerged as one of President Kibaki’s key confidants.

Others, working more or less independently, are former attorney-general Charles Njonjo, Mr Karume’s successor as MP for Kiambaa Stanley Githunguri, and Mathira politician Peter Kuguru.