Uhuru must not betray Ruto if he pledged support

Does President Uhuru Kenyatta owe Vice-President William Ruto Kenya’s ultimate national seat of political power at State House, Nairobi? Will Mr Kenyatta deliver power to Mr Ruto when the time comes? That was probably the agreement that, a few years ago, persuaded Mr Ruto to wholeheartedly support Mr Kenyatta’s own dash to inherit Kenya’s ultimate chair from Mwai Kibaki who received it from Daniel arap Moi, who had inherited it from Jomo Kenyatta, Uhuru’s own notable father.

If that is so, then, quite clearly, the answer to the question must be: Yes, the younger Kenyatta should honour his side of the bargain. In other words, Uhuru Kenyatta has the moral obligation to full-heartedly help Mr Ruto to inherit Kenya’s diadem of ultimate authority. Whether you are or not a supporter of the present Vice-President is beside the point. You still must agree with that statement because it remains wholly legitimate.

DODGY ACTIVITIES

It is also what is in line with Kenya’s Constitution. I say that, in Mr Ruto’s bid for ultimate national power, Mr Kenyatta owes him every support because, even in politics, you should repay your debts. Even there, you ought to repay everything you owe. For one thing only, Mr Ruto fully supported Mr Kenyatta’s own dash for ultimate national power not too long ago and he has remained fully loyal to the President throughout their tenure, frequently deputising for him effectively.

Mr Ruto has played his support role not only honourably but also with full commitment and with colour and sheen. However, given the Vice-President’s vast experience in a game as cynical as politics, Mr Ruto must by now also be fully aware that, in real life, this is not how things have worked out in the national politics of countries analogous to ours. Because the game remains as slippery as a conger eel, every player must always be sufficiently alert to take every political pledge with a very large pinch of salt. In “the game” — as politicians frequently call their own dodgy activities in rivalry and their unreliability and dishonesty in the pursuit after wealth — the effectiveness of political investment lies very largely in accurate reading of every situation, every movement and every statement by every member of the other side.

COME A CROPPER

For, in politics, whenever you read the situation inaccurately, the probability — nay, even the certainty — is that you will pay very dearly for it by coming a cropper. Moreover, both under Western liberalism and in the dangerously false liberalism that European colonialism has recently downloaded onto our continent, any person who easily or frequently comes a cropper in any such rivalry is not worth the appellation “politician”. For, especially in Africa, betrayal and counter-betrayal are very much a part of the definition of competitive politics, especially in the happy-go-lucky liberal systems of Western Europe, North America and now throughout the Third World.

DECEPTIVENESS

Because the elites of practically all Third World countries — especially those of Africa — have recently adopted and continue to admire Western liberalism profoundly — striving embarrassingly blunderously to copy it — the Western elite gloatingly deploys liberalism’s slippery and danger-laden deceptiveness and our own “educated” elite has become completely unaware of the social inadequacies and dangers of liberalism. That is why, even after the collapse of colonialism, as long as humanity’s social relations remain colonial in structure all over the world, what our elites allege to be “education” will continue to benefit only themselves and only the econo-political elites of Western Europe, North America and Japan.

A quite clearly false liberal teaching known as “free commerce” or “freedom of trade” will always effectively see to that.

[email protected]