Intolerance will do Deputy President no good

Notice how strikingly similar these two events are.

This transpired on April 11, 1965: Founding President Kenyatta travelled to Kandara constituency in Murang’a to attack local MP Bildad Mwaganu Kaggia who was a dissenting voice in Central Province and a leftist who would attack government policies on land.

Listen to the father of the nation: “We were together with Paul Ngei in jail. If you go to Ngei’s home, he has planted a lot of coffee and other crops. What have you done for yourself? If you go to Kubai’s home, he has a big house and a nice shamba. Kaggia, what have you done for yourself? We were together with Kung’u Karumba in jail, now he is running his own buses. What have you done for yourself?”

In June 1964, Kenyatta had sacked Kaggia from government because the Kandara MP, a former Mau Mau strategist with a radical land reform agenda, refused to give the President guarantees that he would not attack the government land programme in future.

Combative and aggressive Old Jomo went to Kaggia’s turf to finish him off politically.

At a glance, one would have thought he was extolling the virtues of investment, but he was neither Kaggia’s financial adviser nor manager of his money.

It was Kaggia’s leftist politics, and particularly his stand on redistribution of land, that galled Kenyatta.

ANGRY AND ARROGANT

Now last Sunday, an angry and arrogant Deputy President William Ruto and his equally indignant and bad-tempered sidekicks Senators Charles Keter and Kipchumba Murkomen travelled to Bomet Governor Isaac Ruto’s backyard ostensibly for a fundraiser in a church.

The trio had on their minds more than raising funds; they raised hackles against Bomet Governor Isaac Ruto and Mr Raila Odinga and their separate campaigns for referenda.

The DP and the senators went to Bomet for what Charles Njonjo famously called siasa ya kumalizana (the politics of elimination).

The man the DP wants to finish politically is his namesake and the reason he would want to elicit and enlist public disfavour against Mr Ruto is simply that the governor has refused to fall in line and column as a loyalist or, better still, sycophant. The governor is, in fact, accused of being a supporter of Mr Odinga.

That is significant. Mr Odinga, the leader of the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (Cord), and the DP were once allies but are now bitter political enemies. Mr Ruto teamed up with Mr Uhuru Kenyatta to form the Jubilee Alliance, which beat Mr Odinga’s Cord to the presidency in last year’s General Election.

AN AXE TO GRIND

Though the Supreme Court threw out Mr Odinga’s petition, the former Prime Minister clearly has an axe to grind, which means he thinks the vote was stolen from him.

The DP, in turn, has refused to refer to Mr Odinga by name, preferring instead to call him jamaa wa vitendawili (the man of parables or riddles).

But even before this, Mr Ruto allied himself with Kalenjin politicians who never lost a chance to oppose and attack Mr Odinga when he was Prime Minister and especially after Mr Odinga sacked him from the Cabinet.

Then Mr Ruto targeted Mr Odinga for vilification as the man responsible for his woes at the International Criminal Court where he faces crimes against humanity charges.

Having lost one Ruto and his Kalenjin vote bank, Mr Odinga is in search of another Kalenjin ally and votes. The DP and his supporters believe Mr Ruto is fitting that bill. They are portraying him as the enemy within; the man who would join forces with Mr Odinga to fight the Jubilee controlled government.

The line of attack was simple: Mr Odinga, the DP’s sworn enemy, has hatched the idea of a referendum to remain politically relevant, keep the President and his Deputy distracted and therefore fail to deliver on their election pledges. A Kalenjin, and one who was elected on a Jubilee-allied party, must not be party to this scheme.

Jomo brooked no criticism and loathed having a Murang’a man serve as the pinprick to trouble his conscience. Forty-seven years later a 47-year-old DP loathes having a namesake have views that run counter to his and, like Kenyatta, goes to attack him on his own turf.

Why should the DP choose allies for the governor? Why should the governor not have a view contrary to the DP’s? Strictly, what is the difference between Old Jomo, DP and Mr Odinga? They are all weasels ready to maliza politically those who would oppose them.

Opanga is a media consultant; [email protected]