When Kanu power barons used to think for Kenyans

Former Vice-President Musalia Mudavadi — yes, he once was VP for three months, the shortest stint ever — is a pleasant person to talk to.

He is gentle and takes time to listen, a quality you don’t find in many politicians.

Rarely do you find a politician who appreciates why we were created with one mouth but two ears, so that we do more listening than talking.

I first met Mudavadi in his home village, Mululu, in Vihiga, when he was the youngest member of the Cabinet at age 30.

He was so green the cows would have eaten him as part of the pasture. I was in his home village to interview his area Chief, an old man called Hudson Agoi, who had given himself the non-existent title of 'paramount chief”.

Chief Agoi had taken cue from Musalia’s father, Moses Mudavadi, who had the nickname “King of Mululu”.

He actually believed he was “king” and was the only politician, besides the Head of State, known to receive delegations at his private home.

The senior Mudavadi was a powerful minister for Local Government and Kanu secretary-general in the days when the party was literally “baba na mama” (father and mother”) of the nation.

VOTING SYSTEM

People were forced to be Kanu members, and the so-called party recruitment drives were made a mandatory national ritual.

When one went to a government office for any service, the first document you were asked for wasn’t the national identity card, but the Kanu membership card!

But the worst part of it is where a few party honchos allocated themselves the right to think for the rest of Kenyans.

Those were the days when Mombasa Kanu “supreme leader” Shariff Nassir made the infamous quote that secret balloting would be scrapped in Kenyan elections, and replaced with a queuing system, “watu wapende, wasipende! (whether people like it or not!)

Nassir was assistant minister in the ministry called – listen to this – National Guidance and Political Affairs.

The import was that Kenyans had no mind of their own, and that it was up to a few leaders to think for them and – like little children – be guided by Nassir ministry on what to do.

Below are excerpts from a media interview with Nassir after he made the terrible remark in April 1988.

Question: You were quoted as having said that the secret ballot system will be scrapped whether people like it or not. Were you quoted correctly?

Nassir: I was quoted correctly. When Kanu decides, then it will be done whether they (people) like it or not. I repeat it.

Q: The election process involves all Kenyans, including those who are not party (Kanu) members. How can you talk about democracy, which entails freedom of choice, then say it will be done whether people like it or not?

A: What I am saying is this, since a majority of Kenyans don’t want the secret ballot, Kanu leaders, who represent the people, are going to go by the wishes of the majority.

Q: How did you arrive at the conclusion that the majority of Kenyans do not want the secret ballot?

A: What I am saying is the feelings of Kenyans!

Q: What method did you use to know the feelings of Kenyans?

A: I know the feelings of Kenyans because I meet very many people every day. Other district Kanu leaders do the same thing in their areas.

Q: Should there not be a specific method of assessing the feelings of Kenyans to confirm exactly what they feel?

A: What method? There is an automatic referendum in Kenya. When Kenyans want something, they inform their elected Kanu leaders. Kanu knows the wishes of the people, and I am telling you that the people do not want the secret ballot.

Q: It sounds like a threat. Those with opposing views will be afraid of airing them?

A: That is how things should work. Kanu is a serious political party. It is not a football team or a golf club. When Kanu decides, it decides. The party has no time to play around with anybody.

Q: What then is the role of parliament?

A: Parliament has many things to do, but not to quarrel with Kanu.

Q: Do you appreciate it is both a constitutional and democratic right to seek redress in court by those who disagree with Kanu?

A: But Kanu is the people! How can you disagree with the people? Democracy does not mean wasting time and money in courts. Even judges and magistrates must ask Kanu what is the wish of the people.

Q: Perhaps we should work on improving the secret ballot system, not scrap it?

A: There is no way you can improve the bad things in the secret ballot. In secret ballot, voters cheat candidates by promising to vote for them then vote for someone else. The clerks who count the ballots, too, cannot be trusted. You never know who will cheat on you.

Q: There are counting clerks in queuing as well?

A: But it is a transparent process. What is it that people want to hide in the secret ballot? After all, it is not even that secret. The clerks handling the papers see what the voter is doing, so where is the secret? Queuing is the best system. Everything is open and there are no petitions!

Q: You also said Kenyans have no time to waste on elections because they want to concentrate on development. Would you like to see a situation where there are no elections at all?

A: Of course, where people have good leaders, they don’t want to go for elections. People do not want trouble. They want development.

POWER-SHARING

Back to Mudavadi presentation at the BBI hearings, he is so far the only politician to confront the question on what will be the power-sharing matrix between the president and the prime minister in the envisaged expanded executive structure.

He gave the example of the nusu mkate (coalition) government formed in aftermath of 2007 election violence, and where there was frequent push and pull between the president and the prime minister on one hand, and between the prime minister and the vice president on the other.

Mudavadi reminded me of a conversation I had with a Cabinet minister in the coalition government formed by President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga in April 2008.

In reality, he told me, there was no power-sharing between the president and the prime minister.

“Kibaki was both Head of State and head of government, so where was executive authority shared? Raila was merely a glorified Cabinet minister,” the minister told me, adding that if there was any prime minister, it was Francis Muthaura, the head of the civil service and secretary to the Cabinet, who had delegated executive authority, not Raila.

CABINET MEETINGS

He gave as an example when Raila purported to suspend two Cabinet ministers, Sam Ongeri and William Ruto, but the two ignored him, and President Kibaki stood with them.

As to how decisions were made in the bloated 44-member Cabinet, the Cabinet minister told me President Kibaki never took Cabinet meetings that seriously.

“He allowed anybody who wanted to speak say their piece as he nodded without saying anything, then closed the meeting, only to separately meet with Muthaura and maybe one or two other people to make decisions.”

The Cabinet minister recalled a day when he asked Muthaura about an item previously discussed in a Cabinet meeting.

The Cabinet secretary let out a sarcastic laugh and said: “Discussion on the item was meant for the Cabinet room. We left it there!”

*****

So while the wise men and women in the BBI committee must beware of vested interests that may want to use the committee to slam their cravings down our throats, Shariff Nassir-style, the citizens should be ready to say no to a government structure that gives us two bulls tearing one another in the kraal as the grass –the citizens – suffer the consequences.

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