My heroine, the indefatigable Minister for Justice, Constitutional
Affairs and National Cohesion, Hon. Martha Wangari Karua wants to be
president and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Republic of
Kenya.
Is her's a serious bid for the presidency or just another gush of hot air? I
am unable to refrain from offering her my 50 cents worth of advice
because I am afraid to mourn the loss of a promising political leader.
Waziri, you have an inalienable democratic right to aspire and
vie for any public office in Kenya. Having represented the people of
Gichugu in parliament for the last 16 years, and held high-profile jobs
in the government and political parties, you have the credentials to
aspire to the position of Commander-in-Chief. As the current
chairperson of NARC-Kenya, you have a head start as primus-inter-pares
among the leaders aspiring to inherit President Kibaki's perceived
political mantle in the PNU coalition.
Defying State House in the matter of dissolving PNU's constituent
parties has bolstered and reaffirmed your image and characteristic aura
of political independence. You should pay little attention to the busy
bodies in PNU, and completely ignore President Kibaki in this matter.
The president is not a political animal; he is unlikely to play any
major role in the 2012 elections. President Kibaki is not, and never
has been, a serious political party ideologue or mobiliser. You and his
other friends hurriedly cobbled up PNU just to save him from being
party-less in September last year. It is his disdain for party politics
that led to the collapse of the original NARC, rendered his DP a
moribund outfit, and created the House of Babel that is PNU. Not even
the president's sudden interest in, and ascension to, the leadership of
PNU can salvage the coalition. The president has no vehicle for
political mobilisation or grassroots machinery of his own; and hence no
political fortune or mantle to bequeath to anybody. If anything, the
entire Mt. Kenya region is littered with political orphans of his
former parties with no evident heir of note in sight. Politicians
hinging their survival on President Kibaki after 2012 are simply
suffering a bout of collective amnesia and busy writing their political
epitaphs.
However, Waziri, charity, even in politics, begins at home. Avoid attacking the
Deputy Premier Hon. Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta and Security Minister, Hon
George Muthengi Kinuthia Saitoti. Doing so does not endear you to a lot
of people in southern Kikuyu land. If anything, your thinly veiled
attacks against the duo are slowly rekindling the old wounds and fault
lines (the fabled Chania River divide) between the northern and
southern Kikuyu. Take this matter seriously, since you do not have any
serious cheer-leaders outside Kirinyaga District and as we speak,
NARC-Kenya has lost the support of most sitting MPs in the larger
Nyeri, Laikipia and Nyandarua Districts. Your only saving grace here is
that your defiance against the president and the "big-moneyed elitist
minority" wheeler-dealers resonates well with the majority of the young
people in Mt. Kenya region who are tired of the old order and the
current status quo. Get a young, energetic party ideologue to harness
the political support of the youth and you will pull the rug under your
detractors in Central Kenya.
Outside Central Kenya, some people view you as a rabble rousing
inveterate Kikuyu chauvinist. You need to re-brand and modify this
image through your most visible allies Hon. MPs Dr. Mohamed Kuti,
Danson Buya Mungatana (my former college mate), Katoo Ole Metito, Asman
Kamama Abongotum and Robinson Njeru Githae. Spend much more time
creating a grassroots machinery for NARC-Kenya. The party needs
serious, credible, and clearly-visible groundsmen. You need to organise
and open well managed party branches in every constituency to create
alternative centres of power, disorganise and scatter sitting MPs and
set a foothold in every corner of Kenya.
Whereas you have impeccable credentials in the fight for democracy,
civil and political liberties, you have not championed the fight for
social, economic and judicial reforms in similar fashion. Poor and
unrepresented litigants rarely access substantive justice in Kenya
while the rich and powerful easily get reprieve from the courts.
Judicial officers often refuse to see "real justice" through the miasma
of primordial technicalities of procedure which the rich readily
exploit. Our criminal justice system now seems to be a haven for
criminals who are cleared after committing serious crimes such as
murder, rape and robbery with violence. We have not heard your voice on
the issue of murder suspects walking scot-free due to procedural
technicalities. You must radically reform this system that only seems
to perceive "justice" through the lenses of the villains and not the
victims. You understand the quid pro quo doctrine well, and four years
is a long time; stand for the majority.
Waziri, use the constitutional reform and the gender equity agenda to
your advantage. Nothing would endear you more to Kenyans than the
attainment of genuine constitutional and legal reforms under your
watch. Women constitute 52% of the productive population in Kenya but
have been disfranchised by historical disadvantage. After close to five
decades of misrule by the lethargic and corrupt male-dominated regimes
that have entrenched poverty and social and gender inequity, it will be
not difficult to package and sell the idea of a principled, untainted,
compassionate, and trustworthy woman leader to Kenyans.
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That's how bad its been, eh? WOW!
Time to shift gears.