When Uhuru Kenyatta pulled fast move in TV debate to surge ahead of the pack

In this final instalment, writer Irungu Thatiah lays bare how the Jubilee propaganda arm went into overdrive, turning the twin issues of land and the ICC, which had been assumed to be Uhuru’s Achilles heel, into points for victory in the court of public opinion.

They positioned him as the victim of an omnipresent Raila Odinga, who was favoured by the media, government and international community and portrayed the debate moderators as being hard on Uhuru.

Kenyans believed that all the eight presidential candidates, including Mwalimu Abduba Dida, were fit to become President. If Kenya was all about social justice, opinion polls showed that (Narc Kenya’s) Martha Karua would have won the presidency with a landslide victory.

If it was all about education, Prof James ole Kiyiapi (Restore and Build Kenya Party) would have become President. If it was about the economy, Uhuru Kenyatta (Jubilee) was the man. If it was about democratic space and reforms, Cord’s Raila Odinga was the man. If it was about stability, Musalia Mudavadi of the Amani Coalition was the man.

On social transformation, the best man was Peter Kenneth (Kenya National Congress). If it was about righting historical injustices, Paul Muite (Safina) was the man. And if it was about overthrowing the ruling class and installing the bourgeois at State House, Mohammed Abduba Dida (Alliance of Real Change) was just the man.

It was perhaps the reason that Kenya has been named several times by renowned democratic institutions as the most vibrant democracy in Africa. Everybody would get votes, that was guaranteed. But the person with the highest number of votes would become the fourth president of the Republic of Kenya.

BEEFED SECURITY

At the beginning of February, barely a month to the elections, the State beefed up security for all the presidential candidates. The three frontrunners, Uhuru Kenyatta, Raila Odinga and Musalia Mudavadi, got additional security a day later. It was assumed that one of the men would be president while another would lead the Opposition.

The major parties unveiled their manifestos the same week. For journalists, it was hard work trying to compare party policies, for they were the same on most points. They all started with the big challenges of security, economy, infrastructure, education, energy and health, before moving to second-tier areas such as ICT, tourism, industrialisation and the like.

One point, though, stuck out cruelly, mainly by its conspicuous absence from the campaign heat. Although all presidential candidates said they would fight drug trafficking when asked, none went further from the usual rhetoric. This was because five of Kenya’s top suspected drug lords featured in the three leading coalitions as aspirants for various political seats.

The party leaders of the three leading coalitions knew these men by name, but no one dared shunt them aside.

By the end of the first week of February, the State was treating Musalia Mudavadi, Raila Odinga and Uhuru Kenyatta as potential presidents. They also started receiving regular intelligence reports from the National Security Intelligence Service (NSIS).

Then for the first time in Kenya’s history, all the candidates agreed to slug it out in a joint presidential debate. On February 11, 2013, a heightened Monday evening, Africa was treated to a spectacle never witnessed on the continent. The debate held at Brookhouse School in Nairobi was a game-changer in Kenya’s politics. Millions of Kenyans watched it live on TV.

Every candidate had a weak point, and somehow the moderators just glossed over those areas, until they came to Uhuru Kenyatta. The ICC issue and the land issue, Kenyatta’s Achilles heels, were given wide coverage, to the advantage of the other presidential candidates.

After the first debate, it was now clear how the race was shaping up. Further polls indicated that Kenyatta was leading in social media chatter, followed by Raila Odinga and Musalia Mudavadi.

WON PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE

Then, two days later, just 18 days to voting day, the verdict was out: Uhuru Kenyatta had won the presidential debate. There was universal panic in Cord. Barely two weeks to elections, Raila Odinga called the media and claimed that there was an alleged plot by the Office of the President to rig the elections in favour of Uhuru Kenyatta. In a fortnight, he would be blaming the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), and one month later he would be blaming the Supreme Court.

Predictably, Team Uhuru did not respond to Raila’s allegations.

Instead, Jubilee’s propaganda arm went into overdrive, blaming the presidential debate moderators for being hard on Uhuru. They were under strict instructions from the boss not to celebrate, or mention anything about the win. They were supposed to position themselves as victims of an omnipresent Raila Odinga who was favoured by the media, the government and the international community.

And then on the following day, Uhuru Kenyatta overtook Raila in the opinion polls for the first time. Now the panic in Cord metamorphosed into a shemozzle. The polls had been conducted in the 47 counties of Kenya.

According to Jubilee strategists, factoring population density, the one point lead of Uhuru was actually seven points. Cord also knew this.

Now started the last-minute dash by Cord to turn the tide, almost exclusively targeting the emotive issue of land, an area Kenyatta was supposed to be weak. There was palpable anger in Cord. Raila Odinga himself maintained his cool, but not his best foot soldiers led by Moses Wetang’ula and Johnson Muthama. In public rallies, desperation could be seen.

Moses Wetang’ula was almost always furious whenever he grabbed the microphone, and Johnson Muthama and James Orengo said everything they could, both fact and fiction, about land and reforms. For once, the old song of reforms wasn’t catching fire.

The people already had a new Constitution, and talking about reforms didn’t really capture the imagination of the young, most of whom had been just toddlers in the days of the Kanu dictatorship.

HIGHTENED PROPAGANDA

Still, even after overtaking Raila on the polls, Team Uhuru didn’t celebrate. Instead, it latched onto the last volley of targeted propaganda.
Uhuru Kenyatta had no intention of boycotting the second presidential debates, but Team Uhuru made everyone believe that Kenyatta wouldn’t attend the debate. It was a move typical of Uhuru Kenyatta — sending the pack chasing west while he made a dash in the opposite direction. Cord took the bait, wasting a few precious days dwelling on the issue in their campaigns.

At this time, Jubilee was aware of the San Andreas fault already built up in Cord. The Wiper crowd was unhappy that it was the ODM people who controlled finances in Cord, even though the Wiper men hadn’t contributed equal shares. Many of them didn’t like Eliud Owalo, the campaign manager picked by Raila Odinga.

Within ODM itself there was muted anger, and loud queries about how ‘Jakom’ reached a decision to hire Owalo.

Raila’s chief of staff, Caroli Omondi, didn’t like Owalo either, and this rift was played out in public. ODM had borrowed another leaf from the doomed PNU. As the campaigns moved to the homestretch, it was clear that the entire campaign engine was dependent on the gravitas and charisma of Agwambo alone.

In Ukambani, the Cord situation was more ominous. Apart from Johnson Muthama and Kalonzo Musyoka, no one else was seriously campaigning for the Cord presidential candidate. David Musila had gone to camp in Kitui County, where Jubilee had sponsored a well-funded campaign for Charity Ngilu.

MUDAVADI PUNCHED

In the end, Musila prevailed with a wide margin, but not without some serious punches and clawing from the Iron Lady of Kitui. Mutula Kilonzo of Makueni County was fighting a similar battle with Prof Philip Kaloki and the Cord governors could not be bothered to campaign for anyone except themselves in the closely contested polls.

When Kenyatta arrived for the second presidential debate, he was more relaxed. The leadership of Cord now camped at the Coast, where the emotive land issue was bound to get them valuable votes. Kenyatta had never expected Coast to vote for him, except for some pockets of Taita Taveta, Mombasa and Lamu counties.

He left Cord to have a field day at the Coast, a move that cost Raila Odinga half of his Kisii and Nyamira strongholds. The second debate was a stroll in the park for Uhuru Kenyatta.

He just listened without doing any attack as Mudavadi was questioned on the Goldenberg and Raila was questioned on the maize scandal. Again, Kenyatta won the debate, this time unanimously.

The book will be available from November 24 at Bookstop, Yaya Centre; Books Parlour, Westlands; and a network of vendors and sales agents across the country

Months before the 2013 election campaigns started, Uhuru  Kenyatta would be spotted at The Hood, a pub in Kilimani, not far from his home.

On a good Saturday evening, he’d have been taking whisky for some hours so that on Sunday morning he’d wake up to join the family for mass at the Holy Family Basilica with raccoon-red eyes, his tongue like dried mushroom and his head ding-dinging, as though he was the one who invented the hangover.

Njee Muturi, one of the Kanu carry-overs into TNA, would manage Kenyatta’s presidential campaigns. He had been with Kenyatta for a long time to know his way around the court’s passages, including the vaults closeted underground.

James Muriithi was drafted to mastermind the digital aura surrounding Kenyatta’s presidential campaign.

As the man in charge of branding, he was the one who presided over the launching of TNA’s manifesto, the launch of Jubilee and other blitzy show-pieces.

ONLINE PROPAGANDA

He was one of the city’s noted designers and ICT gurus. Next was Dennis Itumbi, a pretty quarrelsome fellow who had special talents in social media and internet hacking.

He’d lead a highly successful propaganda machine online that captivated many young people. Next was Eric Ng’eno, a lawyer whose real talent was in writing.

He’d lead a blitzkrieg of media excursions, most of them by-lined by names other than his. He also wrote Kenyatta’s speeches.

Finally, Jomo Gecaga, who worked for Kenyatta, and Munyori Buku, Kenyatta’s spokesman.

With the exception of Munyori Buku, the others were young men, averaging less than 35 years. Working with others, they had been told that they were smarter than the Raila (Odinga) crowd; and they believed it.

Kenyatta the motivating optimist had ensured that his men felt supremely confident about themselves.

This was the group responsible of poking holes into Raila’s campaign machine, and turning them over to their advantage.

They were to use any methods possible, both in and outside of the book, to make sure Kenyatta won the elections. When there were misgivings and complaints in ODM’s nomination process, Kenyatta’s team had moved underground to reap from their adversaries’ mess. At one point, pro-Jubilee organisers planned and successfully used Luo radio stations to scatter their enemies.

Immediately after the botched ODM nominations, select Luo presenters were offered inducements to whittle down their support for ODM.

Then myriad telephone lines were opened, where Luo speaking operators called the stations day and night claiming they were ODM members and they were so angry with the dictatorship in ODM that they wouldn’t vote again.

A trend of voter apathy already brewing in Nyanza was further widened, to the grief of Raila.

When Miguna Miguna planned to write his scathing book against the Prime Minister, he was received like a hero by the Jubilee men, always in hotels and away from the cameras.

Jubilee operatives bought truckloads of the copies and distributed them. Several Toyota Land Cruisers owned by Jubilee’s operatives were seen driving from a warehouse in Industrial Area with cartons of the copies, with one respected politician from the mountain region purchasing loads for distribution.

It wasn’t hard to see who was responsible for the dipping ratings of Raila after the nasty work by Miguna Miguna.

Jubilee created a black and white rift, where you were either digital or analogue, fresh or tired, young or old, good or bad.

The campaign machinery then zeroed in on propaganda and left Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto to concentrate on selling the manifesto.

UHURUTO EVADED RAILA

As a result, Kenyatta and Ruto evaded Raila personally, posing as pacifists even as their underground network went directly for the Raila Odinga garrison. When the ODM chief realised what was happening, it would be too late to counter the Jubilee offensive.

As TNA geared towards the final point in Kenyatta’s three-point campaign strategy, it also profiled potential mates already in Cord and Amani coalitions. In Wiper, Alfred Mutua was of considerable interest.

In his nine-year career as a government spokesman, Mutua had literally been working for Francis Muthaura. He had also worked closely with most of the top TNA crowd during their PNU days, including Uhuru Kenyatta. Alfred Mutua had actually been the official mouth-piece for PNU masquerading as a government spokesman.

The man had never hidden his disdain for Odinga, now his presidential candidate. He was a Cord gubernatorial candidate for Machakos County only because it was impossible to win the seat on a TNA ticket.

Mutua was an interesting specimen. He was the archetypal showman. His campaign manifesto read like a fiction blockbuster, rich in fantasy and economic nonsense. A journalist and movie-maker, the reality of his world resembled the movies he made.

When meeting strangers and acquaintances alike, Mutua most often spent more than half the conversation talking about himself.

Unfortunately, many people believed him for a time. TNA had a dossier on him straight from intelligence files of the NSIS. He thought Kalonzo (Musyoka) lacked fire in the belly, Muthama (Johnson) an ignoramus and Musila (David) far too colourless.

Although its candidate in Machakos did not win, TNA was happy that Mutua won. They’d work with him.

DISLIKED WAITITU

Ferdinand Waititu, the undisputed caliph of the sprawling Embakasi, had taken over TNA in the city. Most TNA top brass did not like him, and Kenyatta himself had castigated him twice for his unbecoming behaviour.

Jubilee had wanted a polished nugget to sell in the city, a man who could tally with the party’s own digital message. Instead they got a contractor from Ruai who was more rugged than the quarries where he got his stones for building houses and roads.

From the word go, it was all clear that he would be beaten by Cord’s Evans Kidero, an overrated business executive who was the darling of Kikuyu businessmen. In Jubilee, it wasn’t enough to profile and spy on the enemy.

Members spied on each other and were helped by the intelligence services. Although Musyoka had been ranked the most overrated politician, it was Ruto who was ranked the most dangerous. The man from Eldoret had managed to whip the Kalenjin together.

Ruto’s exploits could only be credited to his genius, and his alone.

However, according to intelligence reports, he hadn’t done it exclusively through persuasion. He had coerced, threatened and even terrorised Kalenjin MPs, and therefore the people. Although he was a staunch Christian, some of the stuff he was credited with did not exactly tally with the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Unlike Raila Odinga and Uhuru Kenyatta, who connected with the crowd in public rallies, Ruto always spoke as though addressing the media and not the people.

Again, unlike Raila and Kenyatta, Ruto mainly used English. Therefore, NSIS concluded, he might rule the Kalenjin but “it will be hard for him to gain national appeal”.