Uhuru Kenyatta is revealing an iron fist in a velvet glove

President Uhuru Kenyatta is faced with the challenge of balancing the act of being President and a presidential candidate. Over the last four years, he has been diplomatic in his response to provocation. He is now seemingly revealing an iron fist in a velvet glove.

As the August elections draw near, the President has shifted the campaign gear to secure his re-election. It is evident that the President is going all out to defend the Jubilee administration’s record following a sustained campaign by the Opposition.

Jubilee stalwarts reckon that the Opposition is keen on depicting the President as a one-term man.

Behind the barrage of claims of failure in government it is emerging that the Opposition, through Mr Raila Odinga, is using sustained criticism to raise its stakes in the polls and re-engineer Mr Odinga’s dwindling political machine which has in the past one year seemingly ran out of gas.

President Kenyatta’s recent criticism of Mr odinga over the 2007 post-election violence and his public spat with hostile governors over performance has revealed his growing assertiveness amid tough re-election battles in swing areas and Opposition strongholds

While the President was on tour of Turkana on March 9, the county's Governor Joseph Nanok claimed that the national government had reduced the amount of funds channelled to it.

“Our challenge is the reduction of the oil revenues from trillions to Sh22 billion. For communities, the percentage has reduced from 15 per cent to be capped at Sh3 billion,” Mr Nanok said.

SHIFT BLAME

President Kenyatta responded by shifting blame to Parliament.

“I am not the one who passes laws. I simply sign. If they think I am easily scared off, they should look for someone else,” he said. The President said that he was free to campaign in every part of the country and will not be intimidated by his opponents. “We will come to ask for votes just like everybody else. If you decide to vote us or not, will the world come to an end?” he posed.

There was a public backlash on his remarks. However, this response was the result of a provocation that warranted a political statement from a presidential candidate. President Uhuru is his father’s son and the late Jomo Kenyatta is on record as never shying away from stern reactions.

President Kenyatta came to power with a baggage of a case with the International Criminal Court (ICC). In the first few years, he demystified the presidency. After the recent 90-day doctors’ strike that paralysed operations in all public hospitals across the country, a fuming Uhuru told off the doctors and directed them to resume work for negotiations to go on.

“If you don’t go to work you will go home and we will employ other doctors. Kenyans will not continue suffering because you are on strike. Resume work then we will talk about salary increase,” he ordered. The doctors went back work

In October last year, he also castigated anti-graft agencies for failing to fight corruption.

'MY PART'

“As President, if there is one issue that has frustrated me, it is this issue. I have done my part. I have taken the actions that I can take, within the Constitution. When we sit down, and I challenge all the agencies here, they say we don’t have the resources. We don’t have this and that. I challenge them here to stand up and say we have been denied the resources we need.”

“And those charged with investigating. Stop the blame game, do your job. Do you expect me to go and set up a firing squad at Uhuru Park so that people can be happy?” the President charged.

In a commentary published in the Nation on March 14, veteran journalist Macharia Gaitho observed that “President Kenyatta’s admirers are now seeing the firm, purposeful and resolute leader they have been craving for; one who will not take insults lying down and will not hesitate to employ the awesome State machinery at his command to keep in check those who defy his authority.”

In the past two years, Mombasa Governor Ali Hassan Joho has provoked altercations with President Kenyatta on various occasions. On March 12, he was blocked from Tononoka grounds, where the President was attending a public rally during which Uhuru received a section of Coast leaders who had defected from ODM. They included Tana River Governor Hussein Dado, Woman Representative Halima Ware, and Taita Taveta Senator Dan Mwazo and Woman Representative Joyce Lay.

The President told off Mr Joho, saying: “You go around with your chest puffed up thinking that if you insult me or my deputy it makes you a Sultan. Sultan for who?”