Kenya Stockholm Blog

In this video, I challenge two key ideas put forward by Mutahi Ngunyi. The first one is Mutahi’s proposal that NASA principals should abandon their quest for Presidency by trying to negotiate with Uhuru Kenyatta for positions in government after elections. Why is this idea weird?

It is because there is nothing to negotiate with a thieving Kikuyu ruling class that is historically known not to keep promises. I argue that in 2012, Musalia Mudavadi negotiated with Uhuru Kenyatta who agreed that he would drop his presidential ambition to support Mudavadi but this pledge later turned out to have been a trick to split ODM. Mudavadi was misled into quitting ODM then abandoned, forcing him to go it alone. He got 450,000 votes and failed to make it to Parliament.

The point is that the Kikuyu mafia cartel cannot be trusted with any negotiation because they have a poor track record of keeping promises. Back in 2002, Raila negotiated an MoU with Kibaki that in the event of a power take-over, the post of Prime Minister would be created and handed over to Raila. Once Raila accepted by saying “Kibaki Tosha”, and immediately after Kibaki took power, the Mount Kenya mafia cartel dumped the MoU as Raila began an anti-Kibaki campaign until 2007. When Raila won the vote in 2007, the cartel stole election and Kibaki was sworn in at night.

In 1992, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga negotiated a deal with Kenneth Matiba that was to see Jaramogi become the President with Matiba as Vice President. Although Matiba had no known cartel because the Kikuyu were not in power, Matiba betrayed Jaramogi and the deal ended with FORD being split into two.

We are in 2017 and Mutahi is telling the opposition to negotiate with corrupt thieves who have no known record of keeping any promise. William Ruto is with them as the latest example of a negotiated deal that has been dumped. The Kalenjin were to share power on a 50-50 basis after the 2013 election but today, any sensible Kalenjin will attest to the fact that they were simply taken for a ride. They left empty-handed. Jubilee no longer enjoys support in Rift Valley because of this betrayal.

Secondly, Mutahi suggest that the NASA principals should all go it alone as presidential candidates then the winner should be NASA’s candidate in order to force a re-run. This suggestion does not even need analysis because the answer is obvious. I argue that if the principles were to run separately, they will create the perfect opportunity for Uhuru Kenyatta to return to State House. There will be no re-run because it will be so easy for the Mafia to rig election in favour of Uhuru and return him to State House. I argue that Ngunyi’s brief from the mafia is to try and put forward proposals that can lead to Opposition split as this will create an advantage for Uhuru Kenyatta. Watch the video and leave your comments.

Okoth Osewe