What the odd Githu, Kiraithe duet says about the power elite

In Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe uses an Igbo proverb about the ecological behaviour of toads to demonstrate the level of despair that has seized the Umuofia clan, with their backs to the wall against the alien white man’s influence.

At a charged gathering called to rally the clan against perceived enemies within, a speaker sets the tone for the day by recalling some wise words from his father.

“My father used to say to me: ‘Whenever you see a toad jumping in broad daylight, then know that something is after its life.’ When I saw you all pouring into this meeting from all the quarters of our clan so early in the morning, I knew that something was after our life.”

The tone and optics at two events in Kenya last week, inspired by deep-seated insecurities among the power elite, mirror the declaration of witch-hunt in Achebe’s Umuofia. On Thursday, Attorney-General Githu Muigai appeared at a press conference accompanied by the Government Spokesman Eric Kiraithe, at which the AG warned Nasa leader Raila Odinga could face treason charges if his movement made good its threat to swear him in as the ‘people’s president’ on December 12.

CONSTITUTION

Citing articles of the Constitution and other laws, Prof Muigai also put counties that have so far passed the Nasa-sponsored people’s assembly motions on notice.

For his part Mr Kiraithe, in his usual pedestrian manner, went on and on telling Kenyans why they should be preoccupied with the more serious things like rainwater harvesting.

Only one national newspaper actually thought Mr Kiraithe said anything worth reporting at that press conference, mentioning his name twice in a 1,120-word story the next day.

The disparity in media coverage was most likely informed by the relative intellectual gulf between the two public officials.

Being a respected lawyer, law scholar and the government’s chief legal adviser, Prof Muigai oozes the kind of knowledge and authority that you don’t always associate with the government spokesman.

Mr Kiraithe, who once battled accusations that he hired some young man to write his Master’s thesis, makes more sense to the bottom feeders among the ruling party followers.

FORCES

Yet pairing Mr Kiraithe and Prof Muigai at a press conference was still very significant in political messaging terms. It symbolised the massing of forces, regardless of class, against “something after our life”.

It is an oddity that was perhaps only matched by President Uhuru Kenyatta’s handlers sending out a picture of him flanked by uniformed regional and county commissioners in State House on Friday.

The colonial-era crown worn by the administrators evokes the pain of living under past repressive regimes in many Kenyan villages. 

Although their roles were controversially retained in the 2010 Constitution, they have taken a relatively low profile. The State House parade might yet mark the return of the dreaded provincial administration.

As the Igbo would say, a toad does not jump in broad daylight for nothing.

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