Love him, hate him, Sonko likely to be city’s next boss

Gideon Mike Mbuvi Sonko will likely be Nairobi’s next governor. At this point, the Iron Throne of Kenya’s most important county seems his to lose. If he runs, he will likely win. Forget what an out-of-touch elite will tell you on Twitter. Ignore what image consultants and public relations experts say in air-conditioned TV studios. Disregard Obama-esque campaigns by other aspirants for that post because we’ve seen them before and they didn’t work in the real world.

Mike Sonko will easily beat Evans Kidero, Margaret Wanjiru, Johnson Sakaja, Dennis Waweru, Eugene Wamalwa, Peter Kenneth or whoever else is thrown his way. Don’t even think that he needs the Jubilee ticket to do it. Even if he ran as an Independent, or on a different party if the regulations allow, he will likely still win. As long as Sonko runs for governor, he is almost guaranteed to win. You can take that to the bank.

This is where and why his public persona becomes problematic. All things remaining constant, our nation’s capital will be led by a leader who believes it is okay to disrupt a funeral, declare himself acting president and dismiss everyone else with “Taka taka” and “Ghasia”. An abridged history of Sonko behaving badly would be too long to be considered abridged. You would probably need to categorise it by month, or just those that were outstanding in their embarrassment score.

NOTHING EMBARRASES HIM

This is the man who has proven that nothing embarrasses him. What ordinary mortals might consider a faux pas, he embraces with commitment. Wearing dirty jeans to an important national event? Done. Dreadlocks in the hallowed halls of Parliament? Been there, done that. Calling the president during a protest to stop a demolition? You bet.

It is precisely because of these antics that he is popular, not in spite of. What an educated middle-class individual considers primitive, the voting masses see as relatability. If Sonko were to polish up, wear Italian suits all the time and speak only in accented English, he would lose the popular support.

He wouldn’t be the Sonko the youth around this city idolise, he would become just another punk. He doesn’t need to be cultured to win their love, he has it by default.

Sonko is a new kind of leader who doesn’t fit in the traditional mould of what a politician should be. While Sakaja prides himself in being the ultimate gentleman, Sonko thrives on his street smarts. When there is a fire in a slum, he will be there in jeans and boots, getting his hands dirty.

When market women are evicted, he will be at the forefront, agitating for their rights, threatening whoever needs to be threatened and paying whatever bills arise. The legend of Sonko has become almost as big as the stature of the man himself.

His real or perceived closeness to President Uhuru Kenyatta doesn’t hurt on the streets either. This is especially so since State House has never publicly rebuked him and the president appears to be genuinely amused by all his drama.

In any case, the public outrage that greets every new Sonko meltdown only lasts a few days and then dies out. Nobody has ever sued him for anything he has done. Nobody has started impeachment proceedings or even a censure motion against him. Kenyans have learnt to tolerate the Nairobi senator and secretly enjoy it when he shakes things up a little. The truth is, there are moments when he is the only one speaking up when things are going awry.

“I am number three in command socially, politically and influence-wise” he said in Machakos on Saturday. He’s not entirely off the mark, actually. Besides President Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga, he had the third largest number of votes in the whole republic. It is  possible that much of Sonko’s mass appeal is because he is the devil we know rather than the angel we don’t. He may be unrefined  but at least he seems to know what the people he represents want.

Whether the people of Nairobi want to be led by a man with an endless potential for conflict and offence is a different story altogether. All reasonable citizens should worry that a man with a history as troubling as his is the favourite to win the governor’s seat. It is certainly easier to win the election than to govern, especially a complex and multilayered county like Nairobi. If you really don’t like Sonko’s hijinks, speak up and make your displeasure known at the ballot box. Otherwise, accept and move on.

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WHEN, IF EVER, WILL NGUGI WIN  NOBEL PRIZE? 

Dear Nobel Prize people, you continue to deny the inimitable Ngugi wa Thiong’o his due and it’s starting to get annoying. Bob Dylan, seriously? It is not possible for that honour to have gone to a whiter, richer person. I know Winston Churchill received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 because of his great political speeches and “brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values,” according to the academy.

None of us was born then, so we didn’t even know that happened until basically three minutes ago. The Swedish Academy claims Dylan has “created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.”

You know what, Ngugi has written 40 books that have raised an entire generation of Africans. He is one of the leading voices on pan-Africanism, remains a leading public intellectual and is a Kenyan national treasure. Denying him that prize does not diminish his work in any way, but it sure would be nice.

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NIGERIAN PRESIDENT’S SHOCKING MISOGYNY

It all started as an uncharacteristically forceful but not surprising comment from Nigerian First Lady Aisha Buhari.

“If it continues like this, I’m not going to be part of any [re-election] movement,” she told the BBC. The activist and businesswoman was concerned about the people around her husband and warned that she might not support him in the next election unless he shakes up his government.

 “I don’t know which party my wife belongs to, but she belongs to my kitchen and my living room and the other room,” shot back President Muhammadu Buhari.  The sexist comment couldn’t have been more tone deaf, standing as he was next to German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

“The president does not know 45 out of 50 of the people he appointed and I don’t know them either, despite being his wife of 27 years,” she had said in her interview. It sounds reasonable enough but when asked to clarify his comments by a DW reporter, he doubled down on them.

“I’m sure you have a house and a kitchen,” he said. “My wife’s job is to look after me.”

Granted, the man is 73 and might not be familiar with the equality movement or even the fact that women increasingly run the world.

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FEEDBACK: ON KENYANS’ LOVE FOR FOREIGN MUSIC

Kenyans do not have a problem supporting local content, but at the same time they are not stupid – I’m not saying you said they are. I’m just saying that Kenyans are smart enough to tell when something is good and when it is not. As a result, they shun local content because it does not meet certain parameters, like the content and the ability to entertain. Kenyans are very high- maintenance and will not be easily wooed by just the effort of local artistes producing whatever they are producing as music. Our artistes need to up their game.  A big thumbs-up to Victoria Kimani and Akothee who are already doing something about it. 

Mena

It has become the norm for Kenyans to ignore their own talented musicians. It rather unfortunate, but let’s look at the reason for this state of affairs. Kenyan musicians put on cheap performances, so they are not taken seriously. Disunity among them is another big problem. Let us also advise local musicians to be more original instead of simply copy pasting. I am not discrediting their talents but just trying to encourage them. Mr Seed does it well but his Nigerian lyrical style is exaggerated. Let us learn to be original; Kymoh and Stigah achieved it perfectly in their Thitima anthem.

Dancun Ochieng’

Larry, Anything foreign is popular! Anything that has a foreign brand name, be it clothes, food, shoes, handbags, entertainment – we always go for the foreign brands! Maybe it is a question of status or social standing or simply a craze! Same with music! When I was young,  Elvis Presley and Cliff Richard were my favourites. All my contemporaries hummed their songs and we totally ignored our Hindi songs! Because Elvis and Cliff Richard were the in thing. Abba was another group that enthralled us! Today I find modern music incomprehensible but my grand children and their parents love those songs! Modern technology has also helped  popularise these songs. Having said that, our Kenyan songs like Malaika, Jambo Jambo Bwana, are international hits!

So it works both ways. Today my favourites are old Hindi songs, the very same ones I had ignored in favour of foreign songs!

Our songsters will come up sooner rather than later.

Usha Shah