Sonko-Igathe relationship perplexing

Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko with his former deputy Polycarp Igathe. One of the biggest omissions while making the 2010 Constitution was the failure to give deputy governors specific job descriptions. PHOTO | FILE | CHARLES KIMANI | DPPS

What you need to know:

  • Insecure leaders often frustrate their second in command though some ambitious individuals in that position also try to leverage it to get the top.
  • Rumours of a split emerged almost immediately after the election, even though the deputy governor dismissed them as “fake news” back in October 2017.
  • Sonko can sometimes be brash while Igathe’s business background means he appreciates the importance of a well-maintained professional image.

That Polycarp Igathe and Mike Sonko were never going to work out was an open secret, even if you don’t know either man well.

They are from different worlds and that they worked together this long is something of a miracle. If you doubted that there was tension between the two men, it should have been plainly obvious if you read the cringeworthy private messages the Nairobi governor shared on his social media pages to prove the exact opposite.

Igathe, an accomplished corporate man, was painfully holding back to the street-smart Sonko, as if to prove that he wasn’t a threat to his boss.

That the governor saw it fit to share the screenshots to push back on a newspaper story he didn’t like was in itself a clear manifestation of the differences in style and temperament.

Sonko can sometimes be brash while Igathe’s business background means he appreciates the importance of a well-maintained professional image.

Rumours of a split emerged almost immediately after the election, even though the deputy governor dismissed them as “fake news” back in October 2017.

“This is politics of distraction,” he tweeted. “H.E. Governor SONKO is my BOSS, my FRIEND,” he continued as he employed the overused honorific His Excellency. “I am very LOYAL to him & I campaigned WITH him to help him deliver to you.”

Apart from his random capitalisation, the former Vivo Energy boss was at great pains to show his commitment to their joint ticket. So when he announced last Friday that he was quitting, the question as to what happened could not be avoided. It was a total turnaround from his brotherhood of just a few months before.

“I regret I have failed to earn the trust of the Governor to enable me to drive Admin and Management of the county,” he wrote as he became the first holder of that office to ever resign.

A politically convenient but otherwise doomed arrangement like the Sonko-Igathe one is not unique to Nairobi. In Kiambu, Governor Ferdinand “Babayao” Waititu and his deputy, Dr James Nyoro, are no longer hiding that they can’t stand each other.

The Constitution says that the deputy governor is the deputy chief executive of the county but they have no specific role. “When the county governor is absent, the deputy county governor shall act as the county governor,” section 179(5) says, as is currently the case with Mathews Owili in Kisumu while Prof Anyang’ Nyong’o receives treatment abroad.

Insecure leaders often frustrate their second in command though some ambitious individuals in that position also try to leverage it to get the top. No wonder during the last term Machakos, Mombasa and countless other counties had epic battles between the holders of the two top offices.

Because a governor can’t fire their elected Number Two, most of them just give them no work, rendering them irrelevant in the day-to-day operations of the county. Kenyans don’t resign, least of all in January, but Igathe probably has a few career options beyond local government so a dignified exit made more sense than suffering through five years of getting nothing done.

His sudden departure is a loss to the people of Nairobi, who could have benefited from a man with his experience in professionalising the famously lax public service and institutionalising a private sector mindset to county management that their predecessor, Dr Evans Kidero, did not succeed in doing.

This situation is a crying shame because, as everyone sensible knows, politics is too important to be left to politicians. There should be more Igathes and Nyoros and William Oduols and Suleiman Shahbals and Zedekiah Bundotichs running for office if this country is to be saved.

There are probably 46 deputy governors right now who are envious of Igathe for having an out and taking it because it can’t be easy trying not to outshine the master. It’s right there in the 48 Laws of Power, perhaps the most misquoted text for leadership in modern times.

And yet they must hang on because we’re all the poorer if all the talent flees from the public service because it is much too difficult to navigate. They might be subordinates to unpredictable, micro-managing, controlling or clueless leaders, but that’s why they must steady those ships.

This is not to suggest that all deputy governors are better educated, higher quality people than those at the top of the ticket because there are cases where the reverse is true.

What is certain is that some of the best performing devolved units are those where there is little friction, personality clashes or turf wars and the leadership is solely committed to delivering for their electorate that put them in power. Is it too much to ask?

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President Uhuru Kenyatta and South African Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa addressing journalists at East London, South Africa on January 12, 2018. PHOTO | PSCU


Can a Kenyan party last 100 years?

Former President Daniel Moi famously said that Kanu would rule Kenya for 100 years, and the jury is still out on whether that is still the case.

The second president wasn’t given to hyperbole but he had such faith in the independence party before it fizzled out shortly after he left power.

Incidentally, the last person to run for president on the party before the “professor of politics” took his leave was one Uhuru Kenyatta, who has just returned from South Africa where he spoke at the African National Congress party’s 106th birthday.

It is facing something of a crisis with the ascent of Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa and the question of what to do with President Jacob Zuma.

The party has strong internal mechanisms and whoever is president almost automatically becomes the leader of the nation. They recalled Thabo Mbeki and Zuma might be heading the same direction. With our party-hopping politicians, can a Kenyan party last that long?

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Kenyan-born striker Michael Olunga holding the autographed match-ball he was awarded after scoring a hat-trick for Girona against Las Palmas in the Spanish League on January 13.


Olunga shines in Spain

I went to see Kenyan international Michael Olunga at his new Spanish side Girona FC in December. The match I went to watch started at the unusually early time of midday at their home base of Estadi Montilivi in the small city a little over an hour’s drive from Barcelona.

Though I was looking forward to watching him play on a rare sunny day in otherwise dull winter, he was on the bench throughout the whole match against Getafe. Later, I ran into him with his coach, Pablo Machin, who was full of praise for him.

“I speak a little English, and Michael speak a little Spanish,” he joked while commending the 24-year-old’s attitude. Since joining the La Liga side on loan from his Chinese club. Ghuizhou, he had impressed in training but wasn’t getting enough playing time.

He remained optimistic and disciplined, and it is clearly starting to pay off. His historic hat-trick on Saturday against Las Palmas is certainly a sign of things to come.

If he keeps up that kind of form, he will soon be turning out for even bigger European clubs and flying the Kenyan flag even higher. The pride of Komarock, the football “engineer” Olunga is only getting started. You can take that to the bank.

Is he right? Send your comments to lmadowo at [email protected].