What you need to know:
The year 2011 opened with an urgency to implement the new Constitution unveiled in August 2010. And 2020 is closing with a push and pull on amending the Constitution through the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI).
In the strange world of politics, Raila Odinga, who led the campaign to vote for the present constitution, is leading the crusade to have it amended. Meanwhile, William Ruto, who led the opposition to the 2010 Constitution, now thinks it is a perfect document.
A key initial agenda in implementing the 2010 constitution was appointment of a new chief justice, attorney-general, and director of public prosecutions.
The conservative wing in then President Mwai Kibaki’s government secretly met and picked Justice Alnashir Visram (CJ), Githu Muigai (AG), and Kioko Kilukumi (DPP).
Prime Minister Odinga’s side of the Grand Coalition government protested and vowed to block the appointments. Smelling trouble, President Kibaki backed down and only Prof Muigai eventually took office as Willy Mutunga (CJ) and Keriako Tobiko (DPP) were appointed after an open process — including interviews and vetting covered live on TV.
Acrimony at State House
Meanwhile, the International Criminal Court trial of six Kenyans alleged to have played key role in the 2007/2008 post-election violence was the new talk of the town. There were accusations of “fixing” that split the Grand Coalition government ahead of the 2013 elections to lock out some players.
An inter-ministerial committee, headed by then Interior cabinet minister George Saitoti, was constituted to deliberate on the ICC matter. Prof Saitoti himself was in some quarters being accused of conspiring with Mr Odinga to fix Mr Uhuru Kenyatta and Mr William Ruto, two of the big names in the ICC list.
According to a confidential source, at one inter-ministerial meeting held at State House, there were demands for Saitoti to step down as chairman since he was an interested party. In the ensuing acrimonious exchange, President Kibaki prematurely called off the meeting — and the committee.
Betrayals in the city
In the meantime, a new game kicked off in earnest. It was on forming coalitions ahead of the 2013 elections, the first under the new Constitution where the winning presidential candidate must garner 50 per cent plus one of the total vote.
The big boys would display their worst behaviour — lying with a straight face, hiding cards, breaking promises, and ambushes.
The first talk of a coalition revolved around some outfit called KKK which was supposed to bring together Mr Kenyatta, Mr Ruto, and Mr Kalonzo Musyoka.
On the sly, Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto didn’t trust Mr Musyoka, but merely wanted to keep him close and avoid him teaming up with Mr Odinga. Mr Musyoka’s side, on the other hand, appeared convinced he would be the beneficiary as his two allies fought the ICC cases. It didn’t help when his then close ally, the loose-tongued Johnson Muthama, alluded to this in a political rally. The coalition plan was dead.
Then came the December 2012 deadline to hand in the lists of the coalitions to the electoral commission. Musalia Mudavadi would be the most played. At first he expected to team up with Mr Odinga, but on condition there be in-house election to pick the presidential candidate. This wasn’t going to work, so Mr Mudavadi looked elsewhere.
He was on the verge of signing a deal with presidential candidates, Peter Kenneth and Raphael Tuju, when Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto suddenly dropped at his residence for a sweeter deal to make him the presidential candidate. But his new suitors dramatically abandoned him shortly afterwards..
UhuRuto that never was
But perhaps most intriguing of the coalitions was one that sailed through in the 2013 elections and again in 2017, the UhuRuto one. Was it simply a marriage of convenience to beat the ICC by winning elections? From hindsight, the first sign of things to come may have been from two events early in the UhuRuto presidency.
In those honeymoon days of holding hands and wearing matching shirts and ties, President Kenyatta had a lengthy private meeting with former President Moi where the DP was not invited. Soon after, Moi and DP Ruto attended a funeral of the elderly politician Ezekiel Barngetuny in Nandi. From their body language at the podium, you could tell the two didn’t miss the other.
The DP made a short speech and flew back to Nairobi, leaving Moi to have a long chat with local elders. When one of the elders thanked the former President for having “advised” them to vote for UhuRuto duo, the former President cut him short with a correction: “No, I advised you to vote for Uhuru Kenyatta…!”
A more telling, but ignored, sign came when, during the first term, the straight shooting Cotu secretary-general Francis Atwoli publicly asked the President to fire his deputy (the constitution doesn’t allow him to do so), and predicted the UhuRuto dalliance wouldn’t last. Early this year I asked the trade unionist what made him say so that early. He replied: “Young man, I am well wired. I can smell things from far.” He didn’t elaborate.
And now UhuRao
Perhaps Mr Kenyatta and Mr Odinga never had any hard feelings against each other despite their political slugfests — particularly after the August 2017 eklections. In July 2013, only four months after the polls, I sought an exclusive interview with Mr Odinga. At the time I worked for the People Daily owned by the Kenyatta family and thought perhaps Mr Odinga would be uncomfortable. But he had no qualms about this.
At the end, I asked him about his personal relationship with the President. He replied: “He is my younger brother and friend. In our family house in Kisumu, there is a room named after his father Mzee Jomo Kenyatta.” How about your political problems, I asked. “Those can be resolved if only we can sit and talk.”
Years later, in March 2018, there was the “handshake” between the two that has changed the political landscape.
nkngotho@gmail.com
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