Kamotho, Saitoti woes and the rise of Young Turks

President Uhuru Kenyatta (right) is received by industrialist Manu Chandaria during the launch of the Kenya International Investment Conference 2014 at KICC in Nairobi on November 18, 2014. As Uhuru Kenyatta’s stock in Kanu continued to rise, he met another young man. His name was William Ruto, and they hit off immediately. PHOTO | SALATON NJAU |

What you need to know:

  • Their utterances caused great discomfort to ‘Total Man’ Nicholas Biwott, Vice-President George Saitoti and Secretary-General Joseph Kamotho.
  • The Rongai issue died a natural death and it was never brought up again. But Kenyatta would soon be in Parliament, that was for sure.
  • Kamotho answered by sacking the mayor and suspending the entire Thika Municipal Council. In the first direct battle between Joseph Kamotho and Uhuru Kenyatta, it was Kamotho 9 Kenyatta 0.
  • Mark Too was forced to resign from his nominated seat in Parliament. The beneficiary was Uhuru Kenyatta.

As Uhuru Kenyatta’s stock in Kanu continued to rise, he met another young man. His name was William Ruto. A rather emotionally volatile fellow from Eldoret with a less than rosy past.

He was as religious as a cardinal but also as vicious as a honey badger. Ruto was also very cogent, articulate and ambitious.

They hit off immediately. Although his past in the Youth for Kanu 92’ was not very palatable, William Ruto had certain talents that a politician could only ignore at his peril.

President Moi had earlier made him an assistant minister as soon as he was elected for the first time in 1997.

But for Ruto, just like his friends in the Kanu Young Turks, this was not enough.

It wasn’t long before the two started organising raucous public meetings in small towns, where they made outlandish demands. They then recruited Julius Sunkuli and Cyrus Jirongo, the former chairman of YK 92, into their ranks.

A few Opposition MPs were welcome, too, and David Murathe and Stephen Ndicho joined the gang. The Young Turks caused a hullaballoo in Kanu.

GREAT DISCOMFORT
Their utterances caused great discomfort to ‘Total Man’ Nicholas Biwott, Vice President George Saitoti and Secretary-General Joseph Kamotho.

One Saturday afternoon, President Moi was on his way to his rural home in Kabarak when he decided to make an “impromptu” visit to the Nakuru Kanu branch office.

On hearing about the sudden visit, the officials collected everyone in the neighbourhood so that the President found a large group waiting for him.

Upon greeting the residents, he urged the people to go to Molo Town to “listen to your leaders”. Then the President left.

At Molo, the Kanu Young Turks had assembled a group of MPs, including five assistant ministers and over 50 councillors for what they called the mother of all rallies. The star guest was Uhuru Kenyatta, ably assisted by William Ruto.

He was quick to let the cat out of the bag. “If President Moi retires, these other old politicians must also go home. They should not hang around telling us that this is their time to take over the presidency. No! Let them also go!”

William Ruto echoed the same words: “All these other old guys must emulate the President and leave the stage to us.”

A vicious fight for the soul of post-Moi Kanu had started in earnest.

BURNING EFFIGY
On returning to Nairobi, Kenyatta found that news of his utterances had preceded him. He had not only angered the Kanu top dogs, but also the Opposition chiefs.

On Tuesday, he woke up to horrifying images of the Mungiki adherents demonstrating in the city streets carrying his effigy.

Then they branched into Parliament Road and burned the effigy right next to his father’s mausoleum. The government had been cracking down on the adherents and, for some reason, they blamed Uhuru Kenyatta for their predicament.

As he would reveal later, he was very distressed by what happened.

The following day, Kenyatta was back in the Rift Valley. Hundreds of Kanu activists had gathered in Nakuru, and their message was unanimous.

If the people of Central Province have rejected Kenyatta, the people of the Rift Valley now are claiming him! They had even identified a parliamentary seat where the incumbent could easily be muscled out and Kenyatta installed in a by-election.

Rongai Constituency fitted the bill and the local MP, Eric Morogo, could be dispensed with without any damage to the party.

When Kenyatta was asked by journalists whether he was planning a move to Rongai, he didn’t deny or confirm. He said he would make his decision when the time came. Eric Morogo himself was cryptic about what was happening.

NATURAL DEATH
It took the intervention of Kenneth Kamuren, who had lost to Morogo in the 1997 elections and planned to run again, to assemble his supporters and announce that they, too, wanted the seat and if Morogo stepped down, Kenyatta would have a big battle on his hands.

The Rongai issue died a natural death and it was never brought up again. But Kenyatta would soon be in Parliament, that was for sure.

Joseph Kamotho had promised Battle Royale should Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto export the mischief they were propagating in the Rift Valley into Central Province.

As the secretary-general of Kanu and minister for Local Government, Kamotho was the caliph of party headquarters and local authorities across the country.

Kamotho controlled all the municipalities of central Kenya, except Thika. This was Kenyatta’s hometown and the younger man had carved out this area for his political games.

The area MP, Stephen Ndicho, was a staunch Kenyatta man. David Murathe from neighbouring Gatanga Constituency was also deeply involved in the Kenyatta camp in Thika.

When mayoral polls were held earlier, Kenyatta, with good help from Ndicho and Murathe, had moved quickly to influence election of his man, David Njihia.

37 SACKED
Kamotho responded by quickly installing one of his men, Franklin Maganju, as Town Clerk and assigned him sweeping powers.

In September, Kamotho ordered the Town Clerk to sack 37 of the ardent Kenyatta people from the council. Ndicho and Murathe were immediately dispatched by Uhuru Kenyatta to rouse the remaining 800 employees, resulting in an unruly demonstration along the town’s streets.

Kamotho answered by sacking the mayor and suspending the entire Thika Municipal Council. In the first direct battle between Joseph Kamotho and Uhuru Kenyatta, it was Kamotho 9 Kenyatta 0.

Kenyatta would live to fight another day. In the meantime, he busied himself with rallies across the country in the company of the Young Turks.

His colleagues, too, were involved in vicious battles for the control of their regions. William Ruto had categorically told the Kalenjin people in many a public rally that he was the heir apparent in the Rift Valley after the retirement of Moi.

Just as Kenyatta was dealing with an older and more experienced Kamotho in central Kenya, so was Ruto dealing with Nicholas Biwott in Rift Valley.

TOTAL MAN

The self-proclaimed ‘Total Man’ had never hidden his disdain for the Kanu Young Turks, especially Kenyatta and Ruto.

Biwott had an interesting history with President Moi, and many people thought he would succeed the President as the supreme Kalenjin leader.

After his college studies in Australia, Biwott had come back home to work as the personal assistant to then Vice-President Daniel arap Moi.

Biwott first stood for elections in 1979, and had been a parliamentarian ever since, and a powerful Cabinet minister whose influence in government was virtually boundless.

He was loathed and feared, adored and respected. And with power came mystery, so that even educated men and women found it easy to suspect that power blackouts in Nairobi’s Eastlands and flash floods in Kano plains had everything to do with Kipyator Nicholas Kiprono Biwott.

Although he stood barely 5’4, and was not charismatic and his rustic looks made him look like a Keiyo potato farmer, Biwott made up for his shortcomings with a sharp brain and even sharper business instincts.

Everyone agreed that he had balls the size of a hot-air balloon.

This was the man William Ruto, with good help from Uhuru Kenyatta, wanted to cut down to size and emerge as the undisputed Rift Valley top dog.

BAD NEWS
Then Ruto went a step further, saying that he now needed to be in the Cabinet to prepare himself for his self-assigned role. This meant a Rift Valley Cabinet minister would have to be sacrificed.

Cyrus Jirongo laid similar claims in Western Province and Julius Sunkuli in Maasailand. The latter would be castigated by George Saitoti and William Ntimama, who were generally regarded as the reigning Maasai top leaders.

Apart from the activities of the Kanu Young Turks, all focus in the new millennium was on the impending Kanu-NDP merger.

Uhuru Kenyatta and company were wary of Raila Odinga and his supporters. They all knew that there were plans for a major reshuffle in government envisioned to clarify the succession line-up.

Raila Odinga would certainly be in. This was not very good news for the Young Turks, but they would deal with the NDP leader on another day.

Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto tried to approach Raila Odinga for an undisclosed deal in April 2001. They had agreed to meet at the Coast in a tavern called Nyama Point Joint in Shimanzi.

They arrived in the evening in an Isuzu Trooper, which was parked right across the gate so that other patrons had to park outside.

They didn’t say what they were up to, but Mombasa journalists were alerted and came to witness the three speaking in low tones. Whatever the agenda of the meeting was, it was never followed up.

The two Young Turks remained suspicious of the NDP leader all through their times in Kanu and beyond.

DADDY'S ATTENTION

Not long afterwards, President Moi had organised a big fund raiser-cum-political rally in his Baringo District.

He was always accompanied by all his favourite Kalenjin MPs to such political excursions, hence Mark Too, as a most conspicuous absentee.

In his place were Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto, both of whom were angling for daddy’s attention.

In Uasin Gishu, the Kanu chairman, Jackson Kibor, had been watching the developments in the party with apprehension.

An elderly man, he had called a public meeting in Eldoret Town to state that he favoured an elderly man like him with experience and wisdom to take over from President Moi.

He had said that he had in mind Mwai Kibaki, George Saitoti or Simeon Nyachae, adding that the three gentlemen understood the economy well because they all had been Finance ministers at one time. His pronouncement irritated President Moi.

William Ruto’s supporters were now free to move quickly and depose Kibor as the Kanu boss in Uasin Gishu, leaving Ruto as the top Kanu man in the key county.

Later in the week, Mark Too was forced to resign from his nominated seat in Parliament. The beneficiary was Uhuru Kenyatta.

‘Bwana Dawa’ (Mister Magic), as Too was popularly known, had been done in. He had been the architect of the Kanu-NDP partnership but it seems his usefulness in Kanu was over.

DEMEANING WORDS
The message was clear. Anyone who stood on the path of President Moi’s newfound project with the Young Turks was in deep trouble.

Kenyatta was sworn as an MP by Deputy Speaker Joab Omino on October 9, 2001.

He was escorted into Parliament by Raila Odinga and Musalia Mudavadi. Soon after, he addressed a press conference at Parliament Buildings with William Ruto, David Murathe and Stephen Ndicho flanking him.

Strangely, his press conference was also attended by six Democratic Party MPs.

For the second time in a few months, Joseph Kamotho was angling for Kenyatta’s political jugular.

This time he spoke some unkind words in a public rally and declared in Gikuyu that kihiigititumagwouthoni (an uncircumcised lad cannot be sent for dowry negotiations).

Those are demeaning words, if not downright insulting, words.

The beef between Kamotho and Uhuru emanated from the jostling over new offices in the Kanu President Moi was creating.

These included the position of second national vice-president and third national vice-president. Kenyatta and Ruto had positioned themselves to take the two seats, even though elections hadn’t been called yet.

EXPANDING INFLUENCE
More alarmingly, Kamotho had received news that Kenyatta coveted his powerful seat as Kanu secretary-general.

Moreover, there were rumours that Kenyatta and his friends William Ruto and Cyrus Jirongo would soon be appointed to the Cabinet.

Kenyatta’s influence was expanding, causing a scare to the old guard.

President Moi did two things on the morning of 21 November, 2001. First he sacked Francis Masakhalia as minister for Rural Development.

Secondly, he transferred Joseph Kamotho from the prestigious ministry of Local Government to the less glamorous ministry of Environment. The beneficiaries were Cyrus Jirongo and Uhuru Kenyatta, respectively.

When Cyrus Jirongo came to Kilimo House expecting an orderly transition, he was shocked to find that Masakhalia had already bolted out via a back door.

Journalists had been waiting to interview Masakhalia, but on seeing them at the parking lot he literally took to his heels and dived into his car, his driver taking off at top speed.

At Jogoo House, Joseph Kamotho was waiting for Uhuru Kenyatta. Journalists could feel the almost tangible tension that had built up during the handing-over ceremony.

Kamotho stood by the side of the desk as he ushered Kenyatta to his former seat. Hulking over him, Kenyatta was on the edge with nervousness, as if expecting Kamotho to call him kihii again and punch him. Kenyatta only relaxed after the caliph of Kanu had left.

It had been a tense 15 minutes and Kenyatta was evidently happy to see the pugnacious Kamotho leave.

ALLIANCE WITH KANU
He travelled to Thika Town that very week, where he was met by women dancers in the streets. He had come to undo the damage Kamotho had wreaked on his carefully-laid power structure in the town council.

Things would further improve for Kenyatta in central Kenya when he gained the support of Central Kenya Parliamentary Group (CKPG), most of whose membership was from the DP.

On 16 November, the CKPG members suggested that the group enters into an alliance with Kanu, like the Kanu-NDP deal, if this could help return the presidency to central Kenya.

The CKPG chairman was Njenga Karume, a pragmatic middle-of-the-road politician, who was willing to cut a deal even against his own party’s official policy.

Karume only backtracked when his suggestion seemed to split the CKPG down the middle.

George Saitoti spoke scornfully of the CKPG’s plans, calling it a tribal outfit.

But Njenga Karume reminded him that it was the very CKPG that had saved him from the motion of no-confidence that Otieno Kajwang’ of NDP had moved in Parliament.

PROBLEMS WITH SAITOTI
Saitoti had hoped that MPs from Central Province would rally round him when he finally declared his candidacy for president, and seeing that they were now drifting towards Kenyatta triggered alarm in his camp.

Uhuru’s Kanu Young Turks had been having running problems with Saitoti. The Vice-President was the very face of the old guard that was parked smack in the middle of their road towards power and glory.

After taming Joseph Kamotho, their next target was the VP. They had to take the battle right into the Vice-President’s backyard of Kajiado and deal him a blow there.

They found a willing partner in Daniel ole Muyaa, who didn’t need any recruitment into the scheme against Saitoti.

A former homeguard during the Jomo Kenyatta administration and a Kanu councillor during the Moi administration, ole Muyaa was now the chairman of Olkejuado County Council.

Having never attended anyone’s classroom in his entire life, him and the professor of mathematics were as unalike as chalk and cheese.

Now, with encouragement from the Young Turks, he started going around telling the people of Kajiado that Saitoti had outlived his usefulness.

Some members of the Young Turks met ole Muyaa at Nairobi’s Panafric Hotel right after the New Year festivities.

There was plenty of beer and steamy steaks as the group had a good time in the bar while they enjoyed music by Fadhili Williams’ band.

KANU ELECTIONS
Then they retreated to a room and got down to business. Ole Muyaa informed the group that there would be Kajiado Kanu branch elections in two months’ time. This was the time to go for Saitoti’s jugular.

During the month of January 2002, Kenyans were treated to an unlikely spectacle as ole Muyaa, accompanied by a hired TV crew, went around Kajiado pouring scorn on the performance of George Saitoti.

The council chairman was certainly well-funded because he had all of a sudden become a very generous host. He would host Maasai morans in his home on weekends, where several bulls would be slaughtered.

The following week would be the turn for the men and women.

Media crews were dispatched from the city to give the son of Muyaa proper coverage and within a very short time Kenyans from all walks of life knew there was a tough man called Daniel ole Muyaa.

By February, the stage was well set. Ole Muyaa had hired five trucks for the job of ferrying his youths, but the Young Turks wanted a bigger armada for effect. No efforts would be spared in the scheme against Saitoti.

The Young Turks acquired 15 more trucks from Kiambu and Nakuru for Muyaa’s use. On election day the ole Muyaa group had already taken over Kajiado Town and all Kanu offices in the county.

SAITOTI VANQUISHED

Saitoti’s poll organisers were outmanoeuvred by ole Muyaa’s morans and his supporters chased back to the villages amidst a great battle cry.

Outnumbered, out-heckled and thoroughly scared, Saitoti’s supporters didn’t even show up for voting. The ole Muyaa group took all the seats.

George Saitoti’s humiliation was now complete. The message was crystal clear; a politician who couldn’t defend his home turf was not worthy of national leadership!

After vanquishing Saitoti, Uhuru Kenyatta had by now leapfrogged Moi’s presumed favourite, Musalia Mudavadi as the heir apparent.

However, Mudavadi’s political clout had considerably fluctuated since Cyrus Jirongo was enlisted to do the spade work for the Young Turks in Western Province.

Now Ruto, Jirongo, Kenyatta and Julius Sunkuli were going all around the country saying that Uhuru Kenyatta was the only man in Kanu that was fit to become the next President of Kenya.