The Hustlers Forum: THE KIBAKI ERROR

THE KIBAKI ERROR

Whereas some Kenyans would like to paint Kibaki as the best President Kenya has had so far, this couldn’t be further from the truth.

In fact, in the eyes of some of us, he is the worst man to have ever ruled Kenya, his Presidency was thus a huge error. Some of us experienced first-hand his misrule and thus we can’t be hoodwinked into blindly singing his praises.

I will personally remember him for the following :-

He institutionalized & officialized tribalism, his rule was essentially a Mt Kenya Mafia lordship over the other ethnic communities. Whereas he was popularly elected by all tribes even without campaigning, as he came back on a wheel chair just to take power, he betrayed us immediately he took his oath of office. Cracks began in the NARC coalition hardly two months after taking office when the Kikuyu elite backed Paul Muite for the position of Chairman, Parliamentary Select Committee on Constitutional Reforms in March 2003, as opposed to Raila Odinga who had sought to retain position.

This was flabbergasting as Hon Paul Muite was a member of the opposition, infact he had led campaigns against NARC & against Mwai Kibaki’s election. Since “blood is thicker than water” he was preferred over Hon Raila Odinga who was in essence the government candidate (who had spear headed the entire NARC campaigns & Mwai Kibaki’s election).

Even though Kenyans overwhelmingly voted NARC to slaughter tribalism, they were rudely surprised when their leaders’ opinions were derogatorily dismissed, I remember Raila Odinga’s concerns on the capital market being dismissed by Amos Kimunya, who derogatively told him that the Nairobi Securities Exchange market is not a fish market, the late Michuki on his part dismissed fellow cabinet minister Mama Charity Ngilu’s concerns on how the country was being run by telling her that politics is not a Kamba dance.

The preferential treatment persisted when there was no retirement from public office for his Kibaki’s from Mt Kenya. Mr. Joseph Kinyua for example stayed in office way past age 58, yet Kenyans from all the other communities would retire immediately upon clocking 55. When pressure mounted to have Mr Joseph Kinyua retire, Kibaki opted to change the law & pushed retirement age to 60 ! It remains so to-date

Even then, Joseph Kinyua still stayed in office even after clocking 61. This was a privilege that was never enjoyed by Kisiis, Luos or Luhyas ageing public servants (it was however enjoyed by others from Mt Kenya such as Muthaura)

Several new districts bearing tribal names were created during his tenure, thus excluding non-locals who reside there. Examples include Imenti, Igembe Bunyala, Tigania, Samia, Mbeere districts amongst others.

When NARC took power, Kenyans were so optimistic that they used to arrest corrupt police officers & frog-march them to the nearest police station. Only for tribalized & localized corruption to become the order of the day. Mega scandals were then ushered in, we had the Anglo Leasing scandal, the Grand Regency scandal, the Free Primary Education funds scandal amongst others. The saying then was that it is “OUR TIME TO EAT”.

The anti-corruption czar who had been plucked from Transparency International, Mr. John Githongo was frustrated & eventually he had to flee the country for his safety. The mafias in government threatened his life repeatedly

The power hungry Kibaki in 2005 tried to create an imperial presidency via the Wako draft, Kenyans from 7 Provinces rejected the draft constitution at the referendum. Apparently, only Central Province (Mt Kenya) saw the goodness in the draft & voted for it overwhelmingly.

Kibaki being the schemer that he is, launched what he called a radical surgery in the judiciary in 2003, that saw the removal from office of almost 100 judges. All this was aimed at getting revenge against Moi era judges who had “mistreated” him in the past. He then proceeded to plant his loyalists in the courts so that by 2007 the courts couldn’t be trusted. The opposition thus opted to take their grievances to the streets instead of the courts, that is how Kenya got itself in the 2007/2008 violence.

In 2002 December we proudly sang “Yote yawezekana bila Moi” as we said goodbye to KANU. Only for Moi to be quickly embraced & even appointed to as our representative in the Sudan peace process ! Immediately thereafter KANU members joined the cabinet ! Moi was also rewarded with a government house, which his family retains to-date ! Whereas we had anticipated that Moi would hand over the official Vice Presidents house which he moved into as Vice President in 1967 & retained when he became President. We were flabbergasted when Kibaki opted to gift the house to Moi who being a billionaire could easily afford a house. Kibaki instead started building a new residence for Kenya’s Vice President (now Deputy President). He should have just repossessed the house, the same way he repossessed the KICC building which the KANU party had allocated to itself.

Then came the Armenian mercenaries with the names Artur Margaryan & Artur Sargarsyan. Kenyans were terrorized in their own county by these rogue foreigners who were flashing Assistant Commissioner of police badges & certificates ! One of them was alleged to have been romantically involved with a certain special daughter of Othaya, they were even spotted several times hobnobbing in public.

Whereas polygamy is culturally accepted & widely practiced in Kenya, matters wife or wives was a hot potato for Kibaki. There is a day his official wife. First Lady Lucy Kibaki called for a press conference where the President was forced to declare that Lucy was his only wife.

The same Lucy slapped a senior government official when he mistakenly made reference to there being another wife. Her occupation with slapping government officials continued as she even proceeded to slap an MP from the Meru region.

Meanwhile taxpayer funds were used to offer elite GSU protection to the supposed second wife. She had GSU bodyguards escorting her & others guarding her residence, yet she was just an “Othaya political activist’.

It thus came as no surprise when after serving as Othaya MP for 39yrs, he handed over the parliamentary seat to the very woman he had denied being linked to.

That an African leader would not be man enough to publicly embrace his own second or even third wife is very telling of his character.

The official wife, Mama Lucy was ever a loose cannon. Instances abound when she physically attached journalists & slapped them for publishing things she didn’t like. In other instances, she had then Nairobi Police boss Kingori Mwangi escort her to raiding media houses and attacking staff !

Raids on media houses were normalized during the Kibaki regime, the Standard Group was attacked numerous times & its newspapers burnt to stop their distribution. Their broadcast equipment was also vandalized. The ban on live broadcasting that has been emulated by successive regimes was actually invented by him when a total media blackout was enforced in 2007.

During the Kibaki reign of terror, political assassinations of opposition politicians, human rights activists, vocal Muslim clerics as well as pro-democracy scholars was commonplace. Notable amongst them was the assassination of the then Embakasi MP, Hon Mugabe Were (whose widow & mourners were teargassed by GSU officers while grieving in their own home), Prof Othiambo Mbai who led the devolution committee at the Constitutional Review team, Ainamoi MP Hon David Kimutai Too, Activists Oscar Kingara & John Oulu, Sheikh Aboud Rogo amongst others.

People disappearing without a trace, never to be seen again became the norm to the point that the United Nations Prof Philip Alston had to visit Kenya to investigate cases of enforced disappearances & extra judicial killings.

The ease with which Uganda “grabbed” Kenya’s territory in the name of Migingo island confirm widespread speculation that the island was actually “gifted” to Uganda as a reward for their help in quelling the 2007 post-election violence. Kibaki remained unbothered that Kenyans were being evicted & harassed by Ugandan forces in their own homes.

Under Kibaki’s rule cases of Kenyan citizens being handed over to foreign governments to be tortured were common, several Kenyans languished in Ugandan & Ethiopian jails having been “grabbed” off Nairobi streets. Their crime being having been vocal & critical against human rights abuses in the region. Political refugees & asylum seekers from Somalia & Ethiopia were also returned to their countries so as to be tortured by the very governments they were fleeing.

Kibaki was the king of using foul & uncouth language daily in public, chants of mavi ya kuku, pumbavu etc were commonplace in his address to wananchi.

Blood being thicker than water Kibaki covertly backed Uhuru in 2013 while fooling the Mulembe nation that he was with Musalia.

Today we have 47 counties instead of 14 regions thanks to him, his 2005 loss in the Banana vs Orange contest & the 2007 election which he stole had left him only with Central province as his sphere of influence, thus he had to do away with the 8 provinces (7 which were against him). He chose to dilute it with 47 counties. This gave him perceived support from 10 counties instead of one province.

He consistently ignored court orders & directives. His blatant disregard of court orders haunts us todate as successive governments have emulated him. His appointments of County Commissioners were declared to be illegal plus several other appointments.

He oversaw the East Africa Community parliament nominations fiasco that turned Kenya into a laughing stock in the region, the matter embarrassed Kenya as it had to be resolved by East African Community court. Kibaki had nominated only his cronies to EALA, this was successfully challenged by the opposition in the East African court. The entire Kenyan team of 9 was thus kicked out of EALA, this paved way for other political players to be involved in drafting a new inclusive list.

It is on record that Uhuru Kenyatta served for 9yrs 5months (March 2013–Aug2022) & not 10yrs. This is because Kibaki shopped around for excuses so as to extend his time in office 2002 – 2013. He served for more than 10 years.

Kibaki was the king of doublespeak, his word meant absolutely nothing. False promises & commitments were his mantra. It is said that he had schemed to shortchange his runningmate Wamalwa Kijana by offering Raila the Vice Presidency, it is Raila who turned down the offer. The MOU he signed with Raila was thrown out immediately he took oath of office. He broke his promise of endorsing to Kalonzo. He also ignored the all-inclusive Moi era Inter-Parties Parliamentary Group (IPPG) consultations mechanism in selecting electoral commissioners (he benefited from the IPPG in 1997 when his party DP got to choose a representative to the ECK).

In 2012 President Kibaki awarded his two children, Judy and Jimi with national honors for their exemplary service to the Kenyan people !

Judy Kibaki got the CBS while her brother Jimi Kibaki got feted with the EBS award.

Kibaki was very consistent and predictable, not to be left out of the national awards list were his village mates & friends from Othaya. Such as Peter Kanyago who got an EBS award to add to the MBS which he earlier received.

In the same year, the then Othaya CDF chairman Karanja Mwangi got the OGW award, while Gichuki Mugambi the then Othaya Development Association chair was awarded the MBS, Othaya tea farmer, Naftali Wachira alias Wamahuro on his part got the Head of State Commendation award (HSC).

During his reign, his daughter Judy Kibaki served in multiple state agencies such as the Brand Kenya board, the Export Promotion Council board as well as the Street Families Rehabilitation Trust Fund.

In 2005 the Kibaki administration chose to sell off our wild animals from the Maasai mara ! 135 wild animals were sold to Thailand for Ksh 80M.

The deal was sealed despite protests from local and international animal conservation groups opposed to the sale.

President Kibaki and Thai Prime Minister Thaskin Shinawatra oversaw the deal signing which included some animals on the endangered species list.

The animals included topi, elands, waterbucks, impalas, gazelles, wildebeests, dik dik, zebras, giraffes, warthogs, hyenas, cheetahs, leopards, lions, buffalos, hippos, kudus, white & black rhinos and gerenuks.

At the end of his tenure, there was an elaborate looting of public coffers disguised as issuing of retirement gifts by various state corporations & agencies. He was gifted a tractor, four fish ponds, dairy cattle, a petrol station, carvings from Kisii university, the NYS sank boreholes for him on his land, the judiciary gave him designer golf sticks, he collected televisions from the Ministry of Communication, he even got high-tech massage chairs etc the gift list was endless. It is worth stating that these gifts ran into millions of shillings, considering fish ponds were essentially land gifts, the petrol station too.

His retirement package included 25 fuel guzzlers ! plus a hefty lumpsum pension running into tens of millions. He got a new palatial retirement home built by taxpayers at a cost of Ksh 400M. The citizens however resisted attempts to build a bronze statue for him plus a 700m office block for his personal use while in retirement. His monthly pension earnings were kingly & extravagant.

It is a fact that the 2010 constitution was written so as to protect Kenyans from a monster such as Kibaki, it was largely written with him in mind.

Our constitution today explicitly declares that a Presidential candidate who wins must be sworn in during daytime, it clearly spells out the time, between 10am & 2pm. So that one doesn’t steal elections ever again & gets sworn in at night.

The constitution also demands that the Presidential swearing in occasion must be conducted in public venue, so that one doesn’t try a Kibaki where he gets sworn-in inside his residence under military guard with the gate locked.

The current constitution even allows adequate time for anybody with an objection to file a case at the Supreme Court before the President elect is sworn in (to avoid a hurried swearing in if the election is disputed).

Most importantly, our current constitution provides for the vetting of all CS, PS & ambassadorial appointees. So that if parliament fails to approve them there would be no cabinet.

This was a lesson learnt in 2007 after Kibaki stole the elections, he hurriedly roped in third-place Kalonzo of ODM-Kenya & the Ford People party and even then he was still a minority in parliament. ODM’s Marende thus easily became the speaker despite the PNU, ODM-Kenya & Ford People alliance.

While the rest of us were on the streets crying & fighting for electoral justice, Kibaki called us idlers & proceeded to unveil his cabinet so that he could get to work ! (The current vetting requirement bocks such a possibility in future).

Today’s constitution thus protects Kenyans from an election thief who would use guns to silence dissent while shamelessly proceeding to form government.

Today’s constitution also caters for the registering of political agreements at the Registrar of Political parties, this current reality is traceable in Kibaki’s thrashing of the NAK – Rainbow MOU that had designated Raila as the NARC government Prime Minister, it had to take bloodshed 5 years later for Raila to be named Prime Minister. This registering of MOUs thus protects politicians from political conmanship.

Even the clause in our current constitution limiting cabinet secretaries to 22 can be traced to Kibaki’s 2008 cabinet of 91 (40 Ministers & 51 Assistant Ministers).

Likewise, timeliness had to be introduced in the constitution thanks to his ignoring to take action that didn’t favour him. Kibaki would pretend to be a man of few words while ignoring court rulings, directives & advisories. He would always argue that he hadn’t refused to comply, that he was only taking his time (his time would then be forever). A future President with Kibaki’s antics can’t succeed as there are now time-lines in various instances e.g. after parliament basses a bill, the President must assent to bill within 14 days, failure to which it automatically becomes law without any further refence to him. The President also must nominate his deputy within 14 days if the office of Deputy President falls vacant. Very strict timelines had to be put in law.

There exists very little difference between the colonial administration & the Kibaki administration, colonialists brutalized our fore fathers while claiming to civilize them. Fair enough they brought us electricity, built the railway, built schools, hospitals & essentially introduced us to “modernity”.

In 2007 tyrant Kibaki literally colonized us and subjected us to rule of the gun. He was a minority leader who stayed in office only because he held the guns & the bullets. In parliament he had 43MPs against 102 ODM/NARC MPs, countrywide he had a handful councilors, all the major cities had ODM mayors attributed its having majority councilors countrywide, his was a brutal minority rule that mirrored the British colonial rule.

The Kibaki regime on its part bribed Kenyans with Thika road superhighway. The existing Thika road was expanded & modernized for easy access to his Othaya village & to his other farmlands. Indeed, the highway greatly opened up the Mt Kenya region to Nairobi.

In all honesty, Kibaki was a calculating dictator pretending to be a quiet man of few words, while in essence he was reigning terror while ignoring & dismissing the citizens’ misery & anguish. He was only a blessing to his tribesmen in Nyeri, Muranga, Kirinyaga, Kiambu, Embu & Meru Counties.

We Kenyans are no doubt a resilient lot, for WE SURVIVED KIBAKI, a tyrant who successfully masqueraded as a democrat.