I personally do not think that what President William Ruto has done in his appointments reflects the Kenya we want. It is the Kenya we don’t want.
Granted, some of those he has appointed or nominated across all lines of the ethnic divide are people I know personally, some are good friends of mine – but that is not the issue.
In the recent past, the President has been at pains to remind Kenyans that, although he was elected on a UDA ticket in the Kenya Kwanza Alliance, he will nonetheless serve all Kenyans equally.
Now, my friends, when a majority of Cabinet and Principal Secretary slots are shared between the Central Kenya and Rift Valley regions, how are the rest of us to judge the President’s interpretation of what “equality” means?
Is it “equality” between the two shareholders of the UDA Company Limited?
When he was the Deputy President, Kenyans will remember that Mr Ruto was always eager to remind everybody how divisive Uhuru Kenyatta was in his politics, suggesting this was one cause of the rift between them.
What we are witnessing now is obviously not the politics of national integration or unity, but of ethnic particularism, otherwise called tribalism.
But remember, Mr President, that we are all taxpayers and we bear the burden of paying the salaries, emoluments and prestige of your office and your Cabinet.
We have the right to tell you when you go wrong. The prestige of your office is paid for by our taxes. It must not be abused.
Deplorable condition
I add prestige here because, in politics, it has as much material significance for a peasant in Ober Kamoth in Kisumu County as it is for a Tugen in Kabartonjo, where I once went to look at the condition of a hospital as the then Minister for Medical Services during the Mwai Kibaki administration. It was deplorable, and yet Daniel Moi had been their President for decades.
It was assumed that the prestige of that office benefited them: it didn’t. They were really happy to see me there since no minister, or the President for that matter, had been seen in Kabartonjo inspecting projects or engaging in development.
They adopted me as their minister.
This story speaks volumes about the futility of putting individuals to public positions because of their ethnic identity.
Commitment to a cause and an ideology, entrenched in a social force or movement like the National Rainbow Coalition (Narc) in 2002, is a much more reliable insurance than political power when individuals access state power.
Obviously UDA doesn’t seem to stand for that social movement out to unite the nation because it is now in power to do so.
The President may easily retort that we should forget the party: he has instructed his Cabinet and other appointees to serve Kenyans equally. But Kenyans are not fools.
Only Mzee Jomo Kenyatta did this between 1963 and 1969 because of what Kanu was then. His government then served all Kenyans more or less equally: and the civil service was professional in word and in deed.
Truth be told, after the assassination of Tom Mboya in 1969 and the collapse of the original Kanu, all pretence at nationalism was thrown to the wind, and the highly tribalised elite-led politics that is the bane of Kenya today was born in earnest under Mzee Kenyatta’s stewardship.
Dark Nyayo years
We started fighting for the Second Liberation soon after Mboya was gone. I was then a student leader at Makerere University in Kampala.
Notwithstanding the dark Nyayo years when we suffered extreme political oppression because of our commitment to the struggle for ‘POPULAR’ democratic change, we soldiered on for more than two decades before the multi-party elections were held in 2002 and Narc won with Kibaki as president.
I have written the word ‘popular’ in capital letters because of its importance to the kind of democracy we believe in as being TRUE democracy.
It is a democracy that takes CITIZENSHIP, the rule of law, equality before the law, equity, clean government, and individual and PEOPLE’S rights seriously. The people here includes all Kenyan nationalities, ill named “tribes”, by colonial anthropology and the colonialists.
Kibaki implemented free primary school education in his first month against all odds. Narc kept its promise to the Kenyan people.
As Minister for Planning and National Development then, I was responsible for ensuring that national development, anchored on service to the people, and listening to the people’s voice, guided policy making and policy implementation.
We did not warn our so-called “enemies” or “competitors” and exaggerate our virtues on the political platform like the current administration has chosen as its trademark: we worked and produced tangible results.
Yes the Treasury had little to no resources. We did not mourn and whine about the so-called “miserable situation” we found ourselves in. La hasha (No).
Our alternative was to engage in wealth creation ideas and projects with speed so that we could broaden the tax base while reducing the tax rate. With our blueprint, known as the ‘Economic Recovery Strategy for Wealth and Employment Creation’, code named ERS, the economy started to grow by leaps and bounds within our first few months in government.
Blame game
We did not engage in a blame game against the Moi regime. Wahenga wanasema: yaliyo pita si ndwele; tugange yajayo. Simple saying, but loaded with wisdom. President Ruto and his Deputy Rigathi Gachagua should take a break and listen to wahenga (sages).
In Kisumu we say: “There is work to be done: let’s do it so that we stop walking with the chickens and start flying with the eagles”.
By the way, fellow Kenyans, let us not allow UDA to take us back to those dark days of the single party system that typified the Nyayo years. The Youth for Kanu ’92 children who have come of age should not be allowed to belittle and trash our democratic achievements. WE ARE THE PEOPLE. BY DAILY NATION