The dynastic quartet is Kenya's real problem

By: Gwada Ogot

[ Posted On: 2009-06-24 ]

The problem with Kenya hinges on the power contests between four families since independence in 1963. Every election for political office in Kenya since 1963 has been nothing but an extension of the binge of the foursome. The quarrelling quartet is made up of the Kibaki, Odinga, and Moi and Kenyatta families who have dominated every presidential election or selection process in Kenya since 1963. From the advantaged positions of power, the quartet influences appointments of the electoral commissioners, the police bosses, the Judiciary and also own or control most of the media houses in Kenya.

To facilitate legal engagement, each today also owns a political party. Odinga controls Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), Kibaki runs Party of National Unity (PNU), while Moi and Jomo-Uhuru Kenyatta have for years shared leadership of the Kenya African National Union (KANU). The five strategic institutions of the judiciary, the media, the electoral commission, the judiciary and political parties are the key institutional players at every electoral contest. This is the actuality which drives the on going reform process in Kenya and its focus on the first four institutions. Political party reform is disregarded because these are already entirely controlled by the quartet.

Jomo Kenyatta and Jaramogi premiered the leadership shows in 1963 as President and Vice President respectively. No presidential race was held as power was advanced to the duo in reward for their supposed contributions to the liberation struggle. Four years later, at the little general elections of 1967, Jaramogi and Kenyatta faced off as sworn enemies under Oginga's Kenya Peoples Union (KPU) against the Kenya African National Union (KANU) of Jomo. Claims of state manipulation and violence rent the bitter parliamentary election. Oginga's party did not present a presidential candidate in the election.

Come 1974, the pair of Kenyatta and Daniel Moi led out the party KANU into the single party general elections. The pre 1974 election period experienced massive detentions without trial and murders of political opponents including state sanctioned terror. Numerous parliamentary and civic candidates were denied clearance to contest the elections, majority being ex-political detainees. By then Kenyatta had surrendered control to a small cabal including former Attorney General Charles Njonjo as a central player. Again no presidential election was held as not a single candidate dared challenge Kenyatta for the Presidency directly for obvious reasons.

After the demise of Kenyatta in 1978, Moi and Kibaki led KANU into the 1979 general elections in which again no presidential elections were held. The Kenyatta reign show cases how narrow ethnic plunder by a small lethal cabal around and including the then President completely threw an entire nation off track. When Moi succeeded Kenyatta, the nation breathed a sigh of relief with Moi's populist and earthy leadership. A coup attempt in 1982 by junior officers of the then Kenya Air Force (KAF) in league with a later self confessed younger Odinga, Raila, however rudely broke the national honeymoon. By 1982, Moi was in no way a mean dictator but the coup definitely transformed Moi into a paranoid freak. From then on, Moi tightened his grip on power and treated national resources in much the same way as Kenyatta, only in his case using better personal public relations and a generous nature to cushion the pillage.

Indeed before 1982, Moi ruled within a seemingly collegiate Presidency which included Messe r's G.G Karuiki and J.J Kamotho, both then powerful Ministers. Many a time, the three rode the presidential limousine together. Raila, son to former Vice President Oginga suffered an eight year split detention stint for his vain attempts at seizing power from Moi by force. The attempted coup was in actual fact simply a continuation of the Odinga quest for power using the only means available then. The following general election in 1983, the Moi-Kibaki axis led the ruling party KANU to victory in another single party race. In between, Moi's paranoia acutely grew prompting him to form the most effective and ruthless secret police ring in Kenya's history, backed by a compliant civil service and a wide monopolistic KANU party network.

Former President Moi and Vice President Kibaki renewed their union at the notorious queue voting KANU nominations which preceded the 1988 general election, unique as the nations most blatantly abused electoral process ever. Shorter queues were declared victors over longer queues by shameless switching results against unwanted candidates. Angry but muffled protests by victims and the public multiplied thereafter. As a result, Kenneth Matiba, a charismatic protégé of former President Kenyatta resigned as Minister from the Moi government. The import being that at the time, resignation was a no option for any member of government and was one that could invite biting state reprisals. Resignations were then deemed as a personal affront to the President. Matiba's action provided vital impetus to the swelling anti government politicians who courageously intensified the fight for the removal of the Moi regime.

Calls for the adoption of multi party politics which begin soon after, snowballed into the explosion of street demonstrations led by the short lived Odinga-Matiba convenience marriage under the pressure group Forum for the Restoration of Democracy (FORD). Wanton ethnic massacres as usual erupted during the 1992 Presidential elections which pitted Odinga senior versus the incumbent Moi ravaging the already fragile national fabric. Again, Odinga as leader of the party FORD-K unsuccessfully took on President Moi and KANU in the first democratic occasion available courtesy of repelling section 2A of the constitution.

Oginga had since the little general elections of 1967 been completely ostracized from the national political scene until 1981 when Moi appointed him chair of the Cotton Lint and Seed marketing board and soon after fired him over an allegedly inappropriate remark about the late Kenyatta to whom Moi much indebted. Odinga finished in fourth place behind Moi, Matiba and Kibaki. Matiba like Raila suffered detention without trial for his ambitions but was released a sickly and crippled pale shadow of his former self. The Matiba story is a sordid illustration of the inhuman extents to which the wielders of power in Kenya degenerate to retain power. Oginga passed on in 1993 and his son Raila made his inaugural presidential shot in 1997 with the National Development Party (NDP) romping home in forth place behind Moi, Kibaki and Wamalwa in that order. In spite of his dismal performance, he claimed to have been rigged out of a definite victory.

Raila, son to Kenya's first vice president Odinga is the first of the 1963 second generation to make a stab for the Presidency, Uhuru Kenyatta the second. After losing the 1997 election, Raila, previously a bitter Moi critic, teamed up with the same Moi and shored up Moi's hold onto power until the break away in 2001, a rift caused by Moi anointing Uhuru as his heir for the 2002 general elections over Raila. Raila formed the rainbow coalition and merged it with Kibaki's National Party of Kenya (NAK) to form the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) under the controversial memorandum of understanding (MOU). The union seized power in the 2002 general elections. The affair was short lived as Kibaki failed to offer Raila the Prime Ministers post as supposedly detailed in the MOU. The 2002 elections was thus just another frontier of the competing quartet in which an Odinga backed Kibaki took on a Moi fronted Uhuru Kenyatta. Kibaki did no better than his predecessors in regard to fighting corruption.

By 2007, only the Odinga family from amongst the quartet had failed to attain the presidency. It was a do or die election for which nothing would be left to chance as age was also catching up with the younger Odinga. The violence around the 2007 elections was no surprise and had been predicted in writing through a massive leaflet campaign, a full year before the general election followed by an intense media campaign. The predictions came to pass almost to a spot.

From 1963 to 2007, all general and by-elections in Kenya have either been preceded or followed by outbursts of violence. The liberation war against the British colonialists commenced a trend which haunts Kenya to date. A sort of hangover expression by the dynastic leader's skewed belief that political power must be literally fought for as was done for the achievement of independence. The worst hit areas are not surprisingly always the regions from which the presidential candidates emanate and which routinely endure grotesque cleansing sorties as the presidential institutions struggle to maintain control of their 'home' bases by conniving the eviction or murder of non compliant voters who are popularly referred to as the "madoa doa" or in English, blemishes.

The binary objective is to guarantee that opponents secure as few votes as possible in a competitor's area of control to deny them chances of obtaining the requisite 25% margin per province, a scheme which also reduces chances of any competing party to challenging the local parliamentary domination of the tribal chiefs in their respective "home" turfs. Central province from where Kenyatta and Kibaki originate, Rift Valley province, home to the Moi family and Nyanza province, adopted home to the Odinga family. The lush coast land suffers for her scenic beauty and has been partitioned by the same quartet and its attendant cadres. No rival candidate has been able to visit Nyanza for example without the risk of sure mobilized violence. In the 2002 and 2007 elections, no presidential candidate dared set foot in the clearly demarcated "no go" Nyanza region for fear of blood baths.

The pursuit of these base objectives has triggered gory ethnic confrontations such as the ugly Ngomongo massacre, the Kariobangi killings, and the perpetual Mathare slum wars; the sense mocking Kibera rent wars, the gory tribal clashes in the rift valley, the infamous Naivasha murders and the artificial urban disturbances that have for years rocked Kisumu and Nairobi amongst many other bloody political engagements. In the urban explosions, all violence protagonists are always from one of the four feuding leader's tribes. Their murderous activities are forever cleverly branded as democratic endeavors.

The trick was to perpetuate conflict between police and the public by provoking the police into reaction and then use the resultant "cases" of police brutality to mobilize foreign support and funds. Examples of this scheme are numerous and largely lend to the cantankerous conflict between specific politicians and the Kenya police. The police are a symbol of authority, sometimes very excessively used and thereby a convenient target for clever politicians who stoke public anger against them through mobilized defiance and in the process appears courageously reformist, conveniently using both the public and the Police as pawns for political mileage. In their harsh reactions, the police publicly self convicted the force.

If the 2012 general election is wrought by the selfish interests of the 1963 cabal, then no doubt, ethnic clashes will once again be stoked depending on the nature of alliances the 1963 quartet will craft. The emergent players all bear well known surnames. Moi's son Gideon is being warmed up to run for President on a KANU ticket, Oginga's son Raila is trying another shot through his ODM party, Uhuru, son to former President Kenyatta is likewise gearing up for the Presidency while President Kibaki is priming his son Jimmy to fill his family boots in 2012, an early warning that the constitutional review process may be skewed to accommodate dynastic interests at the expense of national priority values.

Meanwhile, for lineage extension, the Odinga family is expected to introduce third generation members into the playing field in 2012, a history of sorts if implemented. For records, the Odinga's score another gem, only one and a half years into the coalition government, the Prime Minister has with impunity appointed nearly fifteen or more members of his family into plum government positions, another clear signal of the Premiers future direction and intention in regard to strong family control of government. The warring quartet has strategically also established or adopted the support of smaller satellite dynasty's securing extra regional support which props their national images in return for the reward of high political appointments. The Mudavadi, Khaniri families of western Kenya the Nyagah family of eastern, and the Mohammed family of North eastern fall into this support battalion category.

In Kenya, every root of corruption leads to one humongous tree, the 1963 dynasties. All mega corruption cases, all land grabbing beneficiaries, government property thieves, wanton practitioners of impunity, perpetrators of electoral pogroms and conductors of all manner of vice imaginable in Kenya are traceable to the 1963 quartet. The four families, being the fertile breeding ground of national vice cannot therefore be expected to lead the reform process which threatens to investigate and punish them for crimes against humanity; changes which threaten the exclusive strangle hold they wield upon national power and wealth. Old leadership does not change itself; old leadership is changed by fresh leadership.

At the advent of the Grand National coalition government, the desperate Kenyan public placed massive reform hopes on Raila as the new Prime Minister. Within the first year, Raila had been betrayed by his insatiable appetite and was being fingered in almost every economic scandal mentioned. Two specific heists particularly badly wounded his reputation, the maize and triton oil scandals. He too had chosen the way of Kenyatta, Moi and Kibaki and soon there was no difference at all.

The 2012 general elections is the appointed time for the unveiling of a new testament to save Kenya from the clutch of the greedy quartet. All are today the largest land owners, the biggest property owners, the nations richest industrialists and by far amongst the wealthiest families in the entire East and Central African region, all bestowed by their proprietary perspectives of political power in Kenya. In the reign of the four families, corruption has flourished in tandem with their personal and family wealth. The quartet is the single corruption virus that has gnawed Kenya since birth. Apart from the pursuit of wealth, little else drives their reform masquerade beyond firing their murderous aristocratic greed. Today their fight for power is nothing but a mask for wealth protection, self perpetuation and continued aggrandizement.

For nearly fifty years, Kenyans have survived the effects of power misuse, power abused for division and rule, power misused to plunder asunder, power protected as an exclusive brotherhood heirloom, immoral power over human life and death, an evil power played out behind a tinted democratic smokescreen. Through history, no dynasty has been removed from power through peaceful methods save for the Obama victory over the Bush, Clinton and McCain families, a first of a kind. It is the only path open today.

This Machiavellian power play of the 1963 families portrays what is the old testament of leadership in our country Kenya and is the single cause and justification for urgent national reform. The 1963 quartet is the disease, the affliction for which curative relief must be prescribed. Asking the 1963 foursome to deliver on the reform agenda is in reality demanding too much or akin to expecting a germ to prescribe medication that will ultimately exterminate it. Fifty years for a leadership quartet which has known not the meaning of Kenya, nor protected or respected her is too long a time to continue a lie.

Half a century of social brutality, economic mercantile swoops and bestial political greed, by the quartet is probably as far as Kenyans can go in this manner. Negative ethnicity and land clashes, the frequent scapegoats are more the pretexts rather than the cause of our national decay; it is an eternal power feud that only the people can end. For every five year pre election period, people from different ethnic communities live together peacefully, on the same lands until the leaders come calling at election time and suddenly the neighbors find their continued stay together utterly untenable. After sharing the election spoils, the leaders call for sobriety and urge peaceful co existence. Through the disarray, the ethnic groups of the country have lost innate morals by focusing more on points of divergence rather than sublime points of convergence.

The blessings found within Kenya's borders, great beauty, motley ethnic variety, panoramic wildlife and geographic blend is a story of its own. Diagnosing the ailment is halfway through the cure. As the die is cast, Kenyans must take full responsibility for their own future as no one will bear this weighty burden on their behalf.

The New Testament for Kenya is an idea whose time is here...

Article Source: http://www.afroarticles.com/article-dashboard

About The Author: Gwada Ogot is one of Kenya's foremost political analysts. Based in Nairobi, Kenya -- Gwada is a proponent of regime change & a vehement anti-dynasty advocate whose interests, he believes, fans corruption in Kenya. Presently, he sits on the board of Kenya's premier democratic institute - the centre for multi party democracy. He is married & a proud father of four. Personal Blog: wanwanwan.blog.com/

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