By Sam Omwenga
Illegitimacy is a phenomenon every elected or appointed leader avoids to be labeled with as the plague. Yet many a leader can’t avoid being labeled as such because facts just don’t point in any other direction.
The world is replete with examples of this happening but as much as those so labeled have tried or continue to try and shake the label, it’s a label not easy to shake once it attaches to a leader.
If successful shaking of the label happens, it’s usually due to a combination of dogged determination by the affected leader helped along with extraordinary events beyond the affected leader’s control.
It should also be noted that it matters not much whether the label of illegitimacy is based on fact. In fact all that matters is the claim of illegitimacy based on some colourable ground, usually at least a very strong suspicion of wrong-doing on the part of the target.
Such was the case in the United States in 2000 when that country’s highest court in a split 5-4 vote along party line essentially stopped the counting of votes in one state and appointed George W Bush as the country’s 43rd president despite the fact he did not win a majority of the presidential votes cast.
So hated and despised was George W Bush immediately upon his being sworn in as president that 76 per cent of Democrats and 75 per cent of Black Americans simply dismissed him as an illegitimate president who had been shoved down their throats by the five conservative justices of the Supreme Court.
This conviction was shared by 43 per cent of the rest of the country polled at that time. Bush embarked on his presidency with an ambitious First 100 Days programme intended to showcase him as a different Republican—a “compassionate conservative” as he touted himself during the preceding campaigns but that did little to change most peoples’ view of him as an illegitimate president.
All that, however, would change on September 11, 2011 when the US came under attack by Osama Bin Laden and his group of terrorists.
President Bush was transformed overnight from the most hated and despised president to one you wouldn’t find a single person publicly criticising.
Bush then went on to capitalise on the 9/11 tragedy to erase the claim of illegitimacy and was re-elected in 2004 against a backdrop of forgotten 2000 elections.
The Uhuruto presidency is on the same trajectory as Bush’s was in America back in 2000 because a majority of informed Kenyans believe the duo was illegitimately elected and are therefore not legitimate leaders of the country.
On the other hand, and this is why you hear people talking about “taming” him, the same majority view former Prime Minister Raila Odinga as the de facto leader of the country because they believe he won the presidency but was once again denied the right to be sworn as our next president.
Fair or not; right or wrong, Uhuru and Ruto clearly have an illegitimacy issue they must shake off if they were to effectively govern a country so divided.
As in the case of George W Bush, Uhuruto had 100 days to showcase who they are and what they stand for compared to our past presidents none of whom has performed beyond just above the mediocre for African leaders.
As many commentators and analysts agree, other than perhaps the appointment of a fairly well qualified cabinet, excluding Ngilu and Balala, the Uhuruto presidency is on to a less than promised presidency and riddled with same old inaction to quickly resolve issues such as the teachers strike and insecurity.
No one would have taken anyone seriously who said the eating and corruption most Kenyans have practically come to accept as part of their lives would stop with the assuming of office by Jubilee coalition either in within the first 100 days.
Indeed, it's precisely for this reason many vehemently oppose Raila and would never want him to become president. They rightly fear he'll be the first president to seriously take head-on the rampant corruption and insider dealings in our government.
For example, it’s reported in the news that Francis Kimemia who should have no job in any government that wants to be taken seriously as standing for change and not status quo, has without legal authority ordered the forcible relocation of ministry civil servants from Jogoo House to a building owned by a well-known and Jubilee connected billionaire. Talk about the arrogance of power!
The government will pay the building owner and supporter at least Sh88.9 million a year, excluding Value Added Tax (VAT) for the lease, this' not including the added cost of renovating the offices and furnishing them. VAT is calculated at 16 per cent, which means the final lease cost alone would be Sh103.13 million annually. This brings the total monthly rent per square feet to a whopping Sh8.6 million.
All this is happening when the government can’t resolve a simple teachers' pay problem. Meanwhile, top jobs in state-owned firms in the energy sector are now occupied by executives from the home area of President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy.
KenGen, for example, has tapped Simon Ngure to replace Eddy Njoroge while Rural Electrification Authority has replaced Zachary Ayieko with Ng’ang’a Munyu — both appointees with roots in Central Kenya, the home turf of President Kenyatta.
The Rift Valley has benefited with the appointments of Ben Chumo and Charles Tanui as interim boss of Kenya Power and KPC respectively following the exit of Joseph Njoroge and Selest Kilinda.
Neither of these go anywhere near erasing or even shaking the label of illegitimacy on the Uhuruto presidency; it actually makes it worse and unless something extraordinary such as 9/11 for Bush happens, it’s unlikely the duo will ever shake this label or the notion they’re just another continuation or Moi and Kibaki era politics.
The only thing that may come close to shaking this illegitimacy short of the murderous 9/11 tragic event, is the acquittal of both leaders or at least Uhuru’s acquittal at ICC.
And even with that, like Bush, the duo must demonstrate by deeds that they’re serious about fully implementing the constitution and that they care and will do something about the suffering of ordinary wananchi, lest it’s a one term proposition for both.
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