Let’s appreciate the Kibakis now, when memories are fresh

Do you know how Judas Iscariot died? I was asked on Thursday morning. Of course, I did not have a clue.

Well, my informant said Judas bought a piece of land with the 30 pieces of silver he was paid to betray Jesus and when he visited it, he was struck by lighting which vaporised his brain.

In journalism you are trained that if your mother tells you she loves you, check it out.

So I googled how Judas died and there is some disagreement in the Gospels.

One Gospel says he went to the temple, threw the 30 pieces of silver on the ground, and went out and hanged himself.

Another says he bought the land alright but fell down on it, split open, and his intestines poured out.

There are things that we as human beings must know, must have clearly established in our minds, must have no doubt about. Because they are important.

KNOWLEDGE OF TRUTH

If the truth is not residing in comfort in our heads, then something else less pleasant will take residence there.

It is only by knowing the truth, especially about the present and the past, that will we be able to chart a clean path to the future.

Who killed Tom Mboya and why? What killed Senator Mutula Kilonzo? Kenya has a talent for leaving doors open and issues hanging.

The death of former first lady Lucy Kibaki focused my mind on the Kibaki presidency and the many things which we as Kenyans have never clarified.

This could be because we are tribalists, we do no think, we just wait for our tribal chiefs to issue the edict and we fall in line.

Mrs Kibaki was a tough lady. She was outspoken and politically incorrect. Her true character, what she really thought and felt, was lost in the drama.

But we have caught glimpses of it in the many people who are now coming forward to explain how she cared for them, how she lifted them from obscurity, and what a guardian angel she was in their lives.

However, what I consider even more important is what Mrs Kibaki’s life and character tell us about her husband, another complicated and not very well understood individual.

From all accounts, Mr Kibaki is an aloof and distant man who appears to prefer the solitary life to the constant company of others.

CLEVER AND SUCCESSFUL MAN

Mr Kibaki is also a very clever and very successful man who rose to the pinnacle of politics.

He did not really have to put up with a difficult wife given to drama, but he treated her in public with gentle consideration and was an obedient husband.

His sense of duty towards her tells us a lot, not just about her but about him and their relationship.

I think there was love and friendship going on there, very deep stuff going back 54 years.

Mrs Kibaki was ferocious in her defence of her husband, his interests - which like all good wives and mothers she probably thought he was too idiotic to recognise - and their family.

I think this loyalty meant a lot to Mr Kibaki and that probably explained his unfailing patience and obedience to his wife.

When he was newly elected, there was drama about how many wives Mr Kibaki had. And we agonised and sent teams to Nyeri to dig up whether he had paid dowry for another wife and all that.

The issue was resolved by a simple question: If a man says a woman is not his wife, who are you to say that she is? With that, the media generally accepted Mr Kibaki’s version of his family life.

What changed my perception and subsequent coverage of the Kibaki family was one of those embarrassing State House press conferences where the president explained in detail the members of his family.

While the President was furious — possibly at the indignity of the occasion though he said he was in a “foul mood” over press coverage — the First Lady was not just angry, she was anguished to the point of near tears. Clearly this was a matter tearing up this family.

Personally it ceased being a story or of any interest whether the President had a side family or not.

It just was not a matter of great national interest and certainly not worth the trouble it was causing.

IRONICAL

Mr Kibaki is the perfect gentleman and a very respectable man. I have come to appreciate the skill and sure hand with which he ran the country.

It now looks ironical that we accused him of being hands-off, legs-off, and eyes-off.

While he was not an angel, it took a man of great confidence in his own abilities and faith in himself to stick to some of the difficult decisions he took and to allow the wide freedom that he did.

Many people will say that Mr Kibaki ought to have become President much earlier, when he was energetic and brilliant and illness and infirmity had not set in.

But he was the President for his time, when we needed to be free to rediscover ourselves.

We should not wait 2,000 years to try and work out whether he was a great President and the former first lady a good wife, mother, grandmother, and a good Kenyan. We should do it today, when memories are still fresh.

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