Kenya Stockholm Blog

Kenyans have continued to awaken to the quotidian reality that the peace agreement signed by President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister designate Raila Odinga on February 28th might have hit a snag because of the gridlock surrounding the naming of the grand Coalition Cabinet that was expected to send signals that Kenya was eventually getting back to business following the mobocracy that was precipitated by election rigging by PNU.

The bickering seem to be centered on what has euphemistically been referred to as “portfolio balance” but what breaks down into the number of Cabinet ministers to be appointed in the grand Coalition and the actual identity of Ministries to be pocketed by the two coalition partners represented by the two principals – Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga.

The entrenchment of the Prime Minister’s Office in the Kenyan Constitution through Parliament a few weeks ago means that Kenyans and the world have already witnessed the birthday of a “dual centered” power structure in the country.

The current pickle on the appointment of the much awaited grand Coalition Cabinet should be a worrying signal that the political symbiosis that was expected to flourish between ODM and their PNU protagonists following the signing of the peace agreement might have been a distant mirage.

Politically, Kibaki is a representation of the corrupt Kikuyu ruling class that has been in control of the Kenyan State machine since the December 2002 elections while Raila Odinga is the embodiment of the Luo, Kalenjin, Luhya and other ethnic ruling classes which mobilized their kith and kin to vote for ODM in the last elections.

The quantitative message that can be discerned from the current quandary is that the intransigent Kikuyu ruling class which Kibaki represents is averse to the concept of “real power sharing” that had been propagated strongly by both American Imperialism and agents of European Union who would like to see a peaceful Kenya as this is the key to a peaceful exploitation of the country’s economic, natural and human resources.

The inability of the “principals” to set up a Cabinet because of petty disagreements based on the size of the Cabinet and the identity of the Ministries for their Parties should serve as enough evidence that the Coalition will not be able to work in harmony to transform the lives of millions of Kenyans pregnant with expectations of change and transformation once the Coalition gets into business.

What should be expected is a series of disagreements, political atmospherics, combat in Parliament, flaps in policy making, malevolence during strategic inter-ministerial consultations and a host of roadblocks in the way of Coalition governing.

THE STRUGGLE AGAINST KIKUYU RULING CLASS
ODM and PNU did not envision the possibility of a Coalition government when they went to the polls and what we have today is an abrupt product of diplomatic force that was commanded by Kofi Annan after election rigging and the eruption of crisis in Kenya.

The catalyst was Mass action that made Kenya “ungovernable” thereby sending worries to external forces with interests in Kenya including the United States and the European Union.

For PNU, the stakes of power sharing are high because in as much as the issue remains debatable, PNU and, by extension, the Kikuyu ruling class, is experiencing its last days in power in the Republic of Kenya.

Every conscious Kenyan knows that if elections were called today, the remnants of PNU apparatchiks in government will be swept out of power because the Kenyan nation is not in favor of another Kikuyu ruling class in control of government following what was witnessed before, during and after elections which were rigged by the same people.

After stealing elections and being caught red handed, one would have expected the Kikuyu ruling class to humble itself and try to heal the wounds created as a result of election rigging. They could have thanked ODM for accepting to share power with PNU and even recognizing Kibaki as President after the deal, not introducing new problems at a time when even Raila Odinga has not been sworn in as Prime Minister.

What is holding progress today in Kenya is pure Kikuyu ruling class arrogance and the general old fashioned belief within this class that Kenya belongs to Wakikuyu. The back bone of this belief has already been broken by Kenyan voters but the ruling class has been blinded in a way that they cannot yet see it.

The current impasse has nothing to do with the ordinary Kikuyu in the streets of Nairobi, New York or Stockholm. Outside this ruling class, the group of Kikuyus who wish that Kibaki does not give in to the concept of real power sharing is the Kikuyu chauvinists whom, in their own Mukimo brains, believe that the whole idea of power sharing with ODM was a grand mistake which has to be corrected at the implementation stage thus the impasse.

Unfortunately, majority of those surrounding Kibaki are Kikuyu chauvinists and these includes personalities in the Cabinet like Martha Karua, John Michuki, Kiraitu Murungi, Amos Kimunya, Uhuru Kenyatta and others. They are supported by leeches such as Kalonzo Musyoka, Mutula Kalonzo, Moses Wetangula and company who are playing the typical Kenyan politics of the stomach.

With the battle lines already drawn as seen in difficulties in the appointment of the Cabinet by just two people calling the shots in the grand coalition, our perspective is that the Coalition will not work on a long term.

As the squabbles continue, Kenyans should prepare to go to the polls to elect leaders who can form a government without the ghost of election rigging lurking in the sidelines. The Kikuyu ruling class will never give in because they are still living under the illusion that Kikuyus must be part of the Central control mechanism in the Kenyan political establishment.

This is the source of  resistance against Kikuyu ruling class and although this struggle will take time before victory can be achieved, it must be known among Kenyans that the real enemy is not the Kikuyu masses (some of whom have been brain washed with the House of Mumbi ideology) but the class of Kikuyu wealth grabbers that are trying to protect their loot by delaying an idea whose time has come – the idea that Kenya belongs to no single ethnic group. It will not be easy. But the struggle has to continue.

Okoth Osewe