Writes Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City.
The last two weeks witnessed Kenya’s politics developing into a nasty stage whereby senior cabinet minister publicly exchanging insults.
The intensive political squabbles which surrounds the Prime Minister Raila Odinga, his two arch-rivals, the deputy Prime Minister and Minister Finance and the suspended Minister for Higher Education William Ruto, who is also ODM MP for Eldoret North.
The harsh tone and the degree of insults have caused panic among the peace loving citizen of a country, which is still smarting from the post-election violence of 2008 that had erupted following the disputed presidential election results.
The deputy prime minister Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta, who is also the finance minister was the first to fire the salvo, when he derogatorily referred to his boss the Prime Minister Raila Amolo Odinga in his Kikuyu vernacular as “Kamundi kahi” {uncircumcised and a sub-human.
The remarks came in the background of intensive wrangling within the shaky coalition government headed by the two principals, President Mwai Kibaki and the Prime Minister Raila Odinga following the presidential appointment of the new Chief Justice, the Attorney Genera, the Director of the Public Prosecution and the Controller of the Budget.
Odinga had rejected the appointment saying he was not consulted as required by the constitution, particularly under the National Accord and Integration constitution on which the coalition government involving two major political parties, namely PNU and ODM is formed.
The appointment had splinted the coalition right in the middle with the MPs supporting Kibaki who stood firm that he had done the appointment in line with his constitutional mandate and in consultation with Mr Odinga as required by the constitution.
Uhuru Kenyatta is a member of KANU, one of the collection parties which formed the PNU, a party whose parliamentary strength has in the recent past been strengthen by the defections of Kalenjin MPs allied to William Ruto from the Rift Valley region. The issue was tabled in Parliament and the Speaker of the House Kenneth Otiato Marende together with a High Court Judge Mr. Justice Masinga had ruled the appointment unconstitutional because the persons appointed had not gone through the Judicial Service Commission for vetting before their names were submitted to the final appointing authority who is the President.
President Kibaki remained defiance ignoring all the voices of reasons from the Law Society of Kenya, the outgoing Chief Justice Evans Gicheru, the outgoing Attorney General Amos Wako, NGOs civil societies and representative of foreign mission in the country, UK and the US Mission have a lot of influence on Kenya’s day to day politics and their voices carries a lot of weight.
The warring politicians namely the Prime Minister Raila Odinga, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta and the suspended Higher Education Minister William Ruto, have all their eyes on the presidential seat come the year 2012.
Saying that enough is enough the Prime Minister Raila Odinga ast week hit back with such a thunderous effect, which hi his rivals the hardest and below the belts.
While addressing a huge crowd of people who n had gathered at the Machakos Bus Terminal, which is located right in the middle of the cap[ital, Nairobi, Odinga referred t his political opponents as people who are unfit to lead the country describing them as “drunkards, bhang smoking and thieves.
In an indirect criticism and without mentioning names, Odinga said his detractors could not be trusted to run a government. He said some of the individual love drinking alcohol, smoking bhang and stealing.
“Some people wake up to look for alcohol, while others wake up to smoke bhang as other seek what to steal here and there, they spent hours in courts defending criminal cases related to thieving one after the other.
“Should people who move from one courtroom to another to defend theft cases be in leadership of in jail? He asked amid the thunderous call “Jail Jail” from the charged crowd.
He Prime Minister dismissed the issue of circumcision as a yardstick for leadership qualities.
Turning into Swahili proverb, he said, “Siri ya mwanaume ajuaye ni bibi” Mwanaume ana haja gani chandoni ya mwanaume mwanzake, sio yey ni shoga? loosely translating in English that the secret of circumcision only the wife knows. What business does another man trying to dig up, unless he is a gay?
The Prime Minister also dismissed the so-called Kikuyu, Kalenjin and Kamba political tribal alliance, which is loosely referred to as “KKK”. He said the proponents of such alliance as taking the risk of isolating the Kikuyu, Kalenjin and the Kambas from the rest of Kenya’s 42 tribes.
What happens if more three tribes isolated themselves where do the 29 others go? He asked.
Ruto, a man currently facing many court cases at home fir various criminal offences allegedly committed is expected by Kenyan to be more cautiously in his word to avoid other possible expensive litigation cases of defamation of characters.
He has recently alleged that the ICC cases at the Hague were the work of his enemies who wanted him jailed so that they can stand a better chance of winning the presidency. He has also dismissed the senior ICC investigators as having colluded with his local enemies to have him fixed at the Hague.
Both Ruto and Kenyatta and four others who included the Head of the Public Service Francis Muthaura, the former Minister for Industrialization Henry Kosgey, an FM radio station head of program Mr Sang and the former Commissioner of Police Major Genera l Huseein Ali had their names mentioned by the ICC prosecutor Moreno Ocampo.
And while speaking in Nyeri Uhuru Kenyatta hit back at Mr Odinga when he chronicled hw the Prime Minister was once in 1982 implicated in the abortive military coup against the retired President Daniel Arap Moi, how he had rocked the Ford party and later Narc Kenya. He is also credited for having destroyed KANU before the 2002 general election and was a man shopping for chaos all the time in his leadership history.
Ruto on his part at another function in the Rift alley asked my Odinga to explain how his family had acquired the Kisumu Molasses Plant and its land and that a court cases filed by several complainants had been shelved by Mr Odinga
Observers and political pundits in Kenya, however, are not amused by all these huuhaa and hullabaloos. They are linking the wrangling not only to the Kibaki succession, but as an attempt by those mentioned by the ICC in The Hague to thwart the impending ICC trials at The Hague.
There is a lot of panicking by those who lives are at stake and who are likely to face trial in the Hague. But these insults on the part of leaders does not augur well and they have become the talks of the evening by level minded Kenyans who are questioning the integrity of the protagonists
Ends