Tighten your safety belt for a politically tumultuous year
What you need to know:
The tempo was set in Kisii on January 10, where the launch of the first of regional gatherings to promote the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) happened.
The next public meeting was held Saturday in Kakamega, while the one after that is tentatively planned for Mombasa, the turf of ODM stalwart Governor Ali Hassan Joho.
If the past two weeks are the template for events this year, then 2020 will be a year of intense political fireworks.
CAUGHT OFF-BALANCE
The tempo was set in Kisii on January 10, where the launch of the first of regional gatherings to promote the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) happened. The next public meeting was held Saturday in Kakamega, while the one after that is tentatively planned for Mombasa, the turf of ODM stalwart Governor Ali Hassan Joho.
With the BBI campaign going into high gear, Deputy President William Ruto finally abandoned the initial mask he had adopted of calculated ambivalence and went openly on the warpath. He attacked the BBI as a game of “political conmanship” and the rallies a waste of resources. Why launch expensive nationwide campaigns when nobody was opposed to the BBI, complained the DP, who clearly appeared to have been caught off-balance.
Actually it is not at all clear the DP and his allies really support the BBI. What they do is to blow hot and cold about it, depending on the situation. For much of last year, Ruto consistently kept saying he would oppose the BBI if its aim was to increase executive positions, specifically those of prime minister and deputy prime ministers, which he argued would be a burden to taxpayers.
HIGHLY CONTROVERSIAL
Yet from the speeches given during the Kisii conclave, it was evident the sentiments were strongly in favour of a referendum to create these seats. The DP’s angry remarks following the Kisii meeting confirmed his opposition to BBI remained strong, though in this case it was not so much the BBI report’s contents as the orchestrated nationwide BBI campaigns that have been kicked off.
When the original BBI report was unveiled last year at Bomas, the Tangatanga team heaved a sigh of relief because the report only endorsed a weak prime minister who would be fully under the authority of the President. However, anxiety crept into Ruto’s camp when the term of the BBI task force was extended amid wide speculation that the final recommendations would call for a strengthened prime minister’s office and two deputy premiers.
The Kakamega leg of the BBI train had turned highly controversial. ANC leader Musalia Mudavadi and his Ford-Kenya counterpart Moses Wetang’ula announced at the outset they would not attend the Bukhungu stadium rally, fearing the organisers – Cotu boss Francis Atwoli and Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya – were ODM leader Raila Odinga’s Trojan horse. The duo finally showed up Saturday.
MEETING CANCELLED
A group of pro-Ruto Tangatanga MPs, among them National Assembly Majority Whip Ben Washiali, vowed to hold a rival rally in Mumias. When the police announced cancellation of the meeting’s permit, former Kakamega senator Boni Khalwale and former Sports CS Rashid Echesa vowed the Mumias meeting would go ahead despite the police action. But Atwoli countered that none of the organisers of that rally would be allowed to leave their homes on that day. He did not say who would prevent them and how.
Observers doubted Musalia and Wetang’ula were involved in the proposed Mumias meeting; rather it seemed like the Tangatanga group was trying to drag the duo in to give their meeting legitimacy.
The onslaught against Ruto had been intensified on Tuesday last week when a key DP ally from Central Kenya, Mwangi Kiunjuri, was fired by President Kenyatta from the Cabinet. His Agriculture docket was taken over by Peter Munya, a Kenyatta loyalist.
LACKS GRAVITAS
Under Kiunjuri, the docket had become a nest of problems for farmers in varied sectors. Among the many to hail the sacking of Kiunjuri was Strategic Food Reserve chairman Noah Wekesa, who described him as “the most incompetent Agriculture minister ever”.
Besides positioning himself as a candidate for running mate for Ruto in 2022, Kiunjuri has been taking himself as a possible inheritor of Kenyatta’s Mt Kenya constituency. He would be a hard sell.
Aside from his absorption with telling Kikuyu proverbs and riddles, he clearly lacks the gravitas and sophistication of others who are angling for that position. They include regional luminaries William Kabogo, the former governor of Kiambu, Peter Kenneth, former governor aspirant for Nairobi, and Anne Waiguru, the current Kirinyaga governor and key BBI booster in Central Kenya. There is also Meru heavyweight Kiraitu Murungi, who will be seeking a top Jubilee seat when the party holds its elections in March.
TALL ORDER
Kiunjuri’s defiant parting shot indicates a man intent on putting up some kind of fight. “Make no mistake, I am not going anywhere,” he warned in a statement he issued after his sacking, adding that he was “ready for any eventuality”. What shape such resistance will take remains to be seen. Once he was kicked out of government, his options have been somewhat circumscribed. Also, it’s really a tall order to imagine he can stand up to an onslaught from the State if the latter is inclined to wage one against him (such as the one his friend Ruto has been enduring).
