Ten Years down the line, the outgoing Deputy Prime Minister, Uhuru Kenyatta’s presidency is a dream come true and the person who takes the credit is none other than the self-proclaimed professor of politics, former President Daniel arap Moi,
The son of Moi’s predecessor, Jomo Kenyatta was nominated to parliament on the eve of 2002 general elections and named flag bearer of the then ruling party, Kenya African National Union (KANU). Uhuru could not make it in the elections against a formidable opposition presidential candidate, Mwai Kibaki backed by Kanu rebels led by Raila Amolo Odinga.
The elaborate preparations for Uhuru’s installation on today as the fourth Kenyan president matches no other inauguration in the country’s history save for the British handing over to his father as the Prime Minister fifty years ago.
The ceremony takes place after weeklong deliberations on a petition filed by Prime Minister, Raila in the Supreme Court challenging the credibility of the election of Uhuru as president on March 4, 2013. The court upheld the verdict of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) that declared Uhuru the winner of the presidential ballot.
Beneficiary of political parties fall out
President Kibaki steps down on Tuesday after serving for two terms of five years each following which the constitution bans the holder of the office from seeking another term. The Without a ceremony, the National Accord on Peace and Reconciliation brokered by former UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan that created the Grand Coalition Government also lapses and the document buried in the dustbin of history.
The president elect is the biggest beneficiary of a fall in political parties including the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) led by the outgoing Prime Minister, Raila Odinga. Uhuru adopted ODM orphans that include his deputy, William Ruto, former ministers Charity Ngilu, Najib Balala, Joseph Nyagah.
Uhuru enjoyed the support of Moi and Kibaki in his campaigns with the latter reciprocating the gesture of Kanu in the 2007 general elections. Kanu under Uhuru did not field a presidential candidate in the polls.
Little known to many, the spotlight on Tuesday’s event held under the new Constitution will be on the record breaker President Kibaki, former President Moi and headline grabber Raila.
Kibaki’s service
With fifty years of uninterrupted public service, President Kibaki surpasses the record of his predecessor Moi of 47 years as the longest serving parliamentarian in the country, the continent and the last lot amongst surviving first parliamentarians in the inaugural parliament in 1963. But Moi’s record of 24 years as president remains intact.
Like them or hate them the trio political figures may not have been the best of friends or worst enemies in their tenure but their political contributions have shaped the country’s political landscape that cannot be downplayed by historians.
In times of crisis and for the sake of survival one emerged as a convenient ally of the other. To a large extent, it has been Raila whose support has been sought by either Kibaki or Moi in the last twenty years and vice versa.
Moi escaped the plot, succeeded Kenyatta and rewarded Kibaki with the number two slot. The duo fell out and Kibaki was demoted to Health ministry in the formation of a new government elected without a ballot but through lining up behind candidates in 1988.
Kibaki emerged as the official parliamentary opposition leader in 1997 in a hang parliament in which Moi had only four majority seats. Raila came in handy as the saviour of Moi who with a minority in the legislature could have faced a no confidence vote by his political adversaries.
Raila disbanded the National Development Party (NDP) and joined Kanu and became the party’s secretary general in the merger. The marriage between Moi and Raila was a short-lived affair after the president nominated the son of his predecessor, Uhuru and named him as his successor.
LDP and NAK memorandum
Infuriated by Moi’s decision, a handful rebels including Raila quit Kanu and joined the opposition where Kibaki was proclaimed the coalition’s torch bearer. He was the hero of the moment but cracks within the triumphant National Rainbow Coalition ( NARC)shredded the alliance before ink dried on the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between LDP and NAK on the sharing of public service posts.
Wrangles over the unfulfilled promises ensued endlessly and the delivery of the constitution became a sensitive, divisive and elusive in the years that followed. LDP cabinet ministers were purged from the government as part of a retaliation to the vote in a referendum against the doctored draft constitution.
At last, Kenya has a new revolutionary constitution not that the powers-that-be were for it but the National Accord conditioned delivery of the constitution in a raft of reform proposals to be undertaken as part of national healing and reconciliation.
Kibaki and Raila were signatories to the Accord that brought an end to post-election violence in which more than 1,000 people perished, property of unknown value destroyed and nearly half million souls displaced.
With Raila elbowed out of mainstream politics and new alliances emerging, what is the next move for the political commodity leaders peddled years on end for unspecified financial and material gains?
The writer is a freelance Journalist. Email:paminao@yahoo com
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