From: Mugo Muchiri
Los Angeles, CA
April 1, 2013
THE MUGO REPORT – March 2013
Q: Habari ndugu Mugo? How’ve you been?
Mugo: Njema kabisa. Hope wewe pia?
Q: Been very well, asante. I’m glad we get another chance to look at Kenya, and to review the events of this past month. Of course foremost are the elections that occurred slightly over 3 weeks ago, on March 4, 2013. I’d also like to talk about CORD alliance’s dispute of the presidential election as well as the ensuing judical process which culminated in a unanimous ruling by Kenya’s Supreme Court, in favor of President-elect Uhuru Kenyatta.
Mugo: Yep, quite a bit these past few weeks!
Q: Before we go into that, let’s start with a small, buried piece of news about water which is a pointer, in part, to why societies have elections in the first place. There was a recent commissioning of a new water borehole in the town of Ol Makau, Kajiado County. Ol Makau is near Namanga town, right at the Kenya-Tanzania border. The area experiences some pretty rough dry spells being a semi-arid area. What really struck me about this KSh 10 million World Vision sponsored development were two things: first, they didn’t announce great plans for a water project in the glare of cameras; they just did it! And second, this was completely off the grid, that is, it’s powered by solar.
Mugo: Yes, quite exciting indeed. Talk about making life more livable and less dangerous. Prior to the borehole coming on line, these pastoral residents had to walk long distances to lead their flock to water. As if that’s not enough, they’d still have to contend with predatory dangers when they finally got to a water source. It’s a hardscrubble living. So your point is spot on. Elections matter and with an 86% turnout, Kenyans showed the world what the word ‘emphatic’ is all about. For its own longevity, Government must provide basic services to all Kenyan communities, big and small.
Q: What’s the social impact of this, how many families does this provide a lifeline to?
Mugo: World Vision expects 1500 families to benefit as well as 700 animals. That’s made possible thanks to the 1 million liter holding tank. It’s quite laudable……a little step forward for the world, a large step forward for this Maasai community.
Q: Do you think we’ll see more of these developments in the near future?
Mugo: I hope so. The incoming team raised its ire against NGOs and their influence during the campaigns. So let’s see how vigorously they prosecute this notion of ‘Kenyans taking care of Kenyans.’ Service to the people is the raison d’être of any government. Hopefully, through their efforts Kenya becomes a water-secure nation soon. And by the way, these solar powered boreholes can have a regenerative impact on wildlife, not to mention the possibility of reducing human-wildlife conflicts.
Q: How so?
Mugo: Well one such illuminating example can be found at the MWABVI GAME RESERVE in Southern Malawi. What they’ve done there is to construct a borehole which, like the Ol Makau one, is solar powered and feeds about 24V directly to the pump. But instead of the water get pumped into a storage tank, it is instead directed to three or so large ponds, with each succeeding pond being at a slightly lower elevation. In other words, the first pond is higher than the second, and the second higher and so forth.
This way, when the first pond fills up, the overflow goes to the second pond and then on to the third. Now these ponds are where the wildlife comes to drink water either early in the morning or late into the evening. What I like about this model is that the weaker animals have choices; seeing an enemy at the first pond would naturally drive them to drink at the farthest one away.
The warden there says that this new situation has helped keep the animals from migrating in search of water during the dry season. He credits this more sedentary pattern to a significantly diminished human-wildlife contact.
Q: Sounds interesting. What are we looking at in terms of good old cash, how much does it cost to put this all up?
Mugo: Roughly 67,000 pounds back in 2009 when they implemented this project. The pump output is 8000 liters/day. Incidentally the rhino – both black and white – are being successfully bred at Mwabvi.
Q: Sounds like something KWS need to look at. Southern Africa is really a leader in the area of wildlife management and conservation and we can learn a lot from them, I’m sure. By the way, a buddy of mine Alex Njuguna from Long Beach, CA (via Kiambu) told me how amazing his trip to Krueger National Park in South Africa was.
Mugo: Yes, he’s one of our readers………..what’s up Alex? I haven’t been, but would love to go.
Q: Sawa. This was a real hot potato, bwana. But it appears to be cooled some, so let’s talk about the Kenyan election. WOW!!!!! Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta is in. He da man! Folks now have to get used to not calling him ‘Kamwana’(young lad in Gikuyu language) and start practicing ‘His Excellency’.
Mugo: A phenomenal achievement which all Kenyans need to heartily congratulate him and his running mate for. You have to hand it to them. Their sweat equity paid off big time. They traversed the country, pleaded with wananchi, extolled the virtues of their plans and so forth. At the end of the day, Uhuru’s side carried the day.
That said, I’d caution about the tenor of your remark about title and deference. Why we seem to want to rush to glorify leaders is baffling to me especially when you consider that leadership is about service. It’s about humility and a deep sense of responsibility. It’s not about being worshipped. I love Martha Karua for repeatedly coming back to the point that these folks are just like you and me. Respect them, yes…..but please do deify them, she said. After all power is relative – both in measure and duration. Kwani is Oloo Aringo in former President Moi’s will?
Q: Sawa. Let’s talk about the Supreme Court for a minute. Is there a stone they left unturned? This was quite the impressive bench, was it not?
Mugo: Yes kabisa. The ruling was a stroke of genius and the bench’s unanimity highly commendable. Any divisions on the bench would have opened the flood gates of conjecture and all manner of suppositions. This would have been quite unhealthy for what’s most important for Kenyans: the unity of the country, the cohesion of her people. Think about the fractured bench that decided the ‘Bush vs. Gore’ case. That decision contributed to a rocky first term for the President. Only in his second term, after his decisive win, was Bush really able to earn the respect of the side that didn’t vote for him in either cycle.
The togetherness of the Mutunga bench put a full stop to what you might call ‘Orengo talk.’ Notice how he’s been quite lately? Smidgens of negativity might still be here and there, but the direction of the national conversation is decidedly forward looking – it’s about the swearing-in ceremony; it’s about saying goodbye to the ‘zero tolerance’; it’s about the immediate task of putting together a Cabinet that signals freshness, regional balance and merit; it’s about the expectations of reaping the fruits of Kenya’s first ever truly free, fair, transparent and therefore credible presidential election . This is what happens when the rule of law is in effect.
Q: Prime Minister Raila Odinga has finally conceded defeat and sent goodwill wishes to President-elect Uhuru. Does the nation owe him a debt of gratitude for being gracious in his exit?
Mugo: Yes, but I don’t know that I’d use the word ‘gracious.’ If you listened to his statement after the court ruling, there was a lingering feeling of justice denied. It was the fully-throttled concession that one would expect from a statesman; rather it was a ‘nusu-mkate’ acknowledgement. Think about Romney saying that Barack Obama was “his president now” and asking his supporters to pray for him for wisdom. With Raila, you got the feeling that he hasn’t reached a destination called Finality.
Q: And I take it that your feelings of discomfort weren’t necessarily softened by his remarks on his most recent BBC interview?
Mugo: As I said, I would have loved it if he urged all his followers to give their unqualified support to the new government. Hilary Clinton comes to mind – her unequivocal support for Obama after her loss to him was critical in unifying a somewhat splintered Democratic party. Because of her, the Democrats approached the 2008 general election as a formidable force that ultimately delivered a victory for Obama and his agenda.
Q: I just can’t get my mind around how Raila lost this election. I mean it was his for the taking. How in your view did it happen?
Mugo: It’s an excellent question and one that I think historians will grapple with for a number of years to come. The biggest blow to his ambition to succeed Kibaki, in my view, was the news of mega corruption at the PM’s office. From a personal standpoint, I know that’s where my support for Raila started withering. Vilified as he certainly was, I think Miguna Miguna will come to be regarded as a singular force that unraveled Raila’s presidential ambitions.
There seems to have been a realization in ODM that to achieve equilibrium in government, they needed to begin to ‘eat’ and partake of the benefits of their‘nusu mkate’ or half loaf. The Maize scandal, the Kazi kwa Vijana scandal, the 800million hotel, the South African, Korean, Zambia and Malibu, California connections, $5000 suits, $250 belts…..all these just deflated my support. The fact that he chose not to address these issues brazenly and thoroughly; that he instead went on a name-calling spree to discredit Miguna, that really sealed the deal for me and many Kenyans I believe. “Qui tacet consentit” is a Latin phrase which means
silence implies consent.
Q: So you don’t think that his alienation of Ruto on both the Mau and ICC issues were mainly responsible for his deflation?
Mugo: These were important aspects, yes but they could have been overcome. The 800-lb gorilla was the perceived corruption, the opaqueness and temperament of the PM’s office. In particular, the Prime Minister got distracted, or at least appeared to so.
Q: How do you mean?
Mugo: Leadership is about service to the people. Only through effective leadership can the Kingmaker in this case finally get to be crowned. The PM and his team got distracted. He became a jet-setting Executive who rather preferred being seen in Davos than in Dago’s (Dagoretti Corner). He seemed to take pleasure in hobnobbing with world personalities and forgot that Kenyans wanted to see him leading in uprooting hyacinth in Lake Victoria so that the fishermen’s activities are unhindered. How could he finish a 5-year term and not even have a fish factory in Nyanza to show for it? We wanted to see him finally settle the Nubians in Kibera rather than give excuses for why the status quo remains; we wanted to see him settle IDPs rather than explain away bottlenecks in the bureaucracy that he’s supposed to supervise.
The wananchi didn’t see the benefit of all that travel which raked up millions upon millions of shillings. The PM’s team forgot that it’s not about which league Raila plays in, but rather about whether the ordinary wananchi are getting into a better league that THEY can play in. So this distraction, in my opinion, was another dagger into the heart of Raila’s presidential ambition. An excellent communicator but alas an ineffective leader!
Q: So he wasn’t being effective, he wasn’t hitting the home runs you expected?
Mugo: That’s right, he wasn’t. And ‘liberation, reform’ rhetoric can only take you so far. The vigor, vitality and creativity needed to propel the nation forward………did Kenyans see it in the Octogenarians around Raila? Maybe if kina Ntimama, Kosgey and Gumo could get past a 30-minute briefing without dozing off, then you might be convinced. But these are some of the lessons that I hope the Uhuru-Ruto team will be mindful of and avoid as they put their team together. You want the Mugo Kibatis, the Kokubos, the Martin Oduors, etc………. you need a spirited team.
Q: Haya, let’s wrap this up now. What are your wishes for President-elect Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto?
Mugo: You know I didn’t personally support them during the campaign and my reasons were quite clear. He who has lifted or cause to be lifted a machette against ANY human being didn’t deserve leadership, let alone the top two slots in the nation. But clearly a majority of Kenyans didn’t share that sentiment.
However now that the elections and petitions are over, the least we can do is offer our support to the new government and wish the President-elect luck. I hope Kenyans of all stripes align themselves with the Jubilee Alliance manifesto.
Q: Asante Bwana Mugo. It was refreshing talking with you, and I look forward to our next conversation next month.
Mugo: Thank you too, it was joy.