Kibaki in fire-fighting campaigns

Published on October 21, 2007, 12:00 am

By Gakuu Mathenge

Three weeks of opinion polls showing President Kibaki trailing his key rival, ODM’s Mr Raila Odinga, with a double-digit margin, seem to have rattled the President into an energised campaign mood.

Just a month ago, President Kibaki was sitting pretty and avoided talking much politics.

During a tour of the Coast Province last month, President Kibaki wondered what the fuss was about, saying the General Election was far away. He also told his troops not to panic over an event "that takes place in one day only and people go back to their lives."

Less than a month since he uttered those words, the President was this week in a flurry of vote hunting activities; only a man fighting a battle of his life would be in.

Meeting MPs and opinion leaders from the Kalenjin community led by Baringo Central and Keiyo South MPs Mr Gideon Moi and Mr Nicholas Biwott at State House Nairobi on Wednesday, rushing to Rift Valley to meet grassroots leaders from Baringo Central at the Nakuru State House on Thursday, and deploying his allies to meet a group of elders and MPs from the same community at the Elementaita Lodge the whole of Thursday.

At the Elementaita Lodge, the discussions revolved around sensitive issues: That the Kibaki administration had subjected the Kalenjin to unwarranted harassment through sacking of senior civil servants inherited from the Kanu regime.

Evictions of thousands of families from Mau scheme where the Kanu Government had settled them in the 1990s were also tabled.

The evictions in particular, were taken badly, with some viewing them as a revenge on the community.

While the President personally met grassroots leaders from Baringo at Nakuru State House, a meeting of what was described as ‘informal reaching out talks ‘ was going on between his allies, and Kalenjin MPs.

Former minister, Dr Chris Murungaru, Kanu chairman, Mr Uhuru Kenyatta, Laikipia West MP, Mr G G Kariuki, former PCEA moderator, the Reverend Jesse Kamau, retired PC, Mr Joseph Kaguthi, and Defence minister, Mr Njenga Karume met elected leaders and elders from the community.

Agriculture minister, Mr Kipruto arap Kirwa, Minister of Health, Mr Paul Sang, Marakwet MP, Mrs Jebii Kilimo, Assistant minister, Mrs Alicen Chelaite, Mr Nathaniel Chebelion, Mr Wilson Leitich, parliamentary aspirants and former senior civil servants, were present.

Narc-Kenya chairman, Mr Raphael Tuju, joined them later.

G G Kariuki told The Sunday Standard the discussions were "sensitive" and he would not disclose the content.

"Some tactical errors have been committed by some individuals and all of us are now paying for their mistakes. But I believe honest discussions will yield positive results. We cannot talk much now," Kariuki said, on telephone.

The flurry of meetings and President’s personal involvement are significant.

Ask for forgiveness

This comes a few weeks after another group of grassroots Kanu leaders from the Central Rift gathered by Kanu chairman, Mr Uhuru Kenyatta, at his family’s Gichea farm in Nakuru, demanded that the President goes there in person "na aombe msamaha (ask for forgiveness)" for the forest evictions.

It has not also escaped observers that when the Party of National Unity (PNU) rolled out its regional campaigns, Central Rift was not assigned to any particular group, apparently, leaving it to the President.

The Kalenjin and Central Rift region are among areas that the President is racing against time to woo but damage inflicted on his administration’s image by his ministers’ actions will not be easy to undo.

In the past three weeks, President Kibaki has faced the effects of his five years of ‘hands-off’ leadership style his court poets love to defend as "freedom for ministers to work without interference from above."

The President has woken up to a groundswell of resentment and poor popularity ratings. He now seems to be racing against time.

An indication the President is aware of what he is up against, a searing negative attitude towards his administration that overshadows all the good work he has done, first showed at the PNU’s launch at Nyayo Stadium.

This was when, in his Kiswahili address, he seemed to apologise for his Government wrongs by saying, "hakuna mtu hafanyi makosa (there are no infallible human beings)".

As he faces the electorate, the President is patching up the damage his rogue ministers have done. This has triggered a backlash that political watchers warned about, but which went unaddressed until the unflattering opinion polls.

Unfortunately for him, most of the damage control he is combating has to do with his ministers’ actions, which portrayed them as a cabal of arrogant and hegemonic tribalists.

Minister spearheaded evictions

For instance, a senior cabinet minister spearheaded the evictions from the Mau Forest in 2004.

Despite the President’s repeated plea and assurances that those affected were free to return, indications are the region is not persuaded.

Kibaki is running around dousing fires caused by former Lands and Settlement minister, Mr Amos Kimunya, (now Finance minister) when he described title deeds as "worthless pieces of paper".

Two weeks ago, at a public rally in Nakuru, Bomet MP, Mr Nick Salat, demanded, in Kimunya’s presence, that the President give an assurance that "our titles are not worthless pieces of paper."

Last weekend, Kabete MP, Mr Paul Muite, caused a storm in Central Province, when he named Kimunya, Internal Security minister, Mr John Michuki, Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister, Ms Martha Karua and Defence minister, Mr Njenga Karume, as the axis "that should be held accountable should Kibaki lose the election".

"If they bring Kibaki down, they should answer for it, they represent the excess baggage in the Kibaki re-election campaign. They add no value," Muite told a rally in Kiambaa.

The following day, Karume came out fighting, and demanded that Muite clears the air "if Mr Michuki or I owe him anything".

Kikuyu FM stations have since picked up Muite’s statement, with analyses, calling opinion programmes and others that have generated inflamed debates.

Though the ministers may have their own arguments, it is Kimunya’s, Michuki’s and Karua’s actions and omissions that have generated resentment.

In what some view as the latest blunder, Karua’s ministry is responsible for ECK appointments and was this week being blamed for the election of Mr Kihara Mutu as the ECK vice-chairman.

Mutu’s elevation raises blows since President Kibaki seconded him to ECK when he was DP chairman.

Karua has also brushed aside demands to involve other parties in replacing retiring ECK commissioners.

A source said: "She can have her way to massage her ego. But the flip side of this is that the country is on the eve of a hotly contested General Election."

Politically, Michuki has achieved the unenviable distinction of being against his countrymen.

During colonial times, he hunted the Mau Mau freedom fighters as a young District Officer.

Today, his ministry is at the centre of the controversial deportation of Kenyan Muslims suspected of involvement in terrorist activities.

After meeting several Muslim delegations, the President has now formed a special committee to look into Muslim grievances.