KENYA, A NATION LED BY THREE BLIND MICE

THE STANDARD
NAIROBI, KENYA
April 10, 2009
By Kipkoech Tanui

Who will tell President Kibaki and his cantankerous Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka the political firestorm rocking Grand Coalition is no longer about Prime Minister Rail?

Who will remove the blindfold for them to see the groundswell underneath their red carpet so they could understand it is beyond the man they call this Jaluo?

Who will tell them the rallies they are planning, as well as those of their disenchanted partner _ Orange Democratic Movement _ could court a peoples’ revolt the kind of which fell Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines and sweep them all to abyss?

Who will hoist Kibaki from PNU’s muddied waters to the pedestal of national presidency? Who will remind him that he is in his final term and despite the controversy and questions of legitimacy on the second, he will be object of not-so-funny historical anecdotes if he tries to succeed himself through

Uhuru Project II?

It would be a cruel twist of irony to his supporters if he inherits and refurbishes the project Kenyans helped him crush in 2002. It would be a hilarious footnote in history if he goes ahead with the project, forgetting 2002, when the people’s power broke tribal boundaries and torpedoed him to

State House, in spite of being in poor health. But still he is struggling to succeed himself along the narrow confines of tribe and party affinity!

Can’t Kibaki see his boat leaking behind his inscrutable face after Gichugu MP Martha Karua and her sidekick Mr Danson Mungatana took off? This is the moment he must get into foul mood over issues outside his royal family’s kraal.

By the way is it because Raila, between whom and Kalonzo there is no love lost, appointed half the Cabinet that the VP wants to make Karua’s replacement his task?

Flower girl

But is it surprising that Raila, who was losing grip in ODM by appearing too eager to play Kibaki’s flower-girl, turned around when it became obvious his role of† "supervisor" and "coordinator" of operations of Government ministries died on paper long ago?

Raila read the signs he was soon going to face rebellion in his party and there wasn’t much respect coming his way from PNU.

That is why the foul-mouthed Transport minister Chirau Mwakwere said, when Raila complained there were no toilets in his pavilion when he visited Mombasa, the PM could as get more than he needs wherever he goes!

I have asked these questions as a way of marvelling at how deeply our leaders have been blinded by belief the power-sharing deal healed all our wounds. That is why there is still little being done to hold and unite the country through fast-tracking constitutional reforms.

I have four observations: First, the manipulation and abuse of electoral process in 2007 will not just be wiped away by power-sharing. The suspicions, pain and trauma that we have a President who should not have been, second time round, will live among sections of Kenya for a long time.

It is this festering wound that our leaders keep scraping through their cat and mouse games. It is worse when it is Kalonzo, the opportunist, lecturing this part of the nation on probity and political chastity. Yet, all he did was hover around pride of lions hunting buffaloes "only to land and pick up whichever pieces he could as the big cats fought over the spoils. And he called it a miracle" and his contribution to stop the nation from falling!

Two, until Raila conceded we were being governed in a "primitive" and "Jua Kali" style, he was one among the Three Blind Mice we learnt of in a nursery rhyme. Now it seems the other two are blinder.

Three, it is nature of bigots and non-reformists to lose touch with reality "especially once blinded by power and the feeling of de javu. As we saw in

last days of Kenyatta and Moi regimes, like with old Lion King, the kittens play around him as he daydreams. That is why at the end of African

strongmen’s regimes, theft and indiscipline reach the peak. The poor old man might not even know what is going on, or could even say "Yes" when he means no. At other times he is too distracted by failing health, blunting sense of judgement and plummeting concentration, so much they lose track of serious business of State.

Fourthly, our leaders will be woken up from their political stupor when the giant that is the ordinary Kenyan wakes up and demand that which is theirs.

All forms of servitude have an end. It comes when a people have been bled dry, when there is a vacuum in the throne and a catharsis in governance. We are on the threshold. The tree of hope is drying fast — and our blind leaders are turning away the life-saving water. But as they say of truth and mice, bury in one corner of the farm and it reappears in another.