Kenyans will have a tough time deciding on our next president if the race goes up to the finishing line. I am truly spoilt for choice. The trouble is, I have only one vote. All the top contenders have cut their teeth under former President Moi and are seasoned players. As usual, all pledge they understand our problems and will improve our lives if elected to the highest office.
I want to see economic development and the full crystallisation of the new constitutional dispensation from the next occupant of the House on the Hill, if they live up to their ‘peace’ commitment in the elections. None of these people is a passionate stickler for rules or laws, and economics bores them stiff. So, let’s use some other measure to size them up.
Prime Minister Raila Odinga speaks our ‘ukombozi’ or ‘not yet uhuru’ language for those of us marginalised who still live on treetops. He also connects with those who consider him a bulwark against the Mt Kenya mafia that wants all the nation’s bread, all the time. Nonetheless, he remains a rhetorical populist who may change positions whimsically between sunrise and sunset. Well, he got my vote in 2007 and had his day in the sun.
Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta is a gentleman and an amiable person, less rhetoric than most politicians, except of course when the Railaphobia bug hits him. I also trust his ‘equal opportunity’ instincts will encourage him to tame the central Kenya to be less voracious for the national cake and learn to share. He is less overtly ethnic and we will see more roads. With the ICC ‘sniffer dogs’ on his trail, I am uncertain that he will make it to last stretch. He got my vote in 2002.
Eldoret North MP William Ruto is uncharacteristically blunt. He fights for his space; he takes his right and does not ask for it. I am a pastoralist, and I am reassured that he knows how to milk cows. He is a great organiser and political schemer who would give Raila a run for his money.
To the Mt Kenya mafia, he is an enigmatic character not worthy of their trust but whose ego should be massaged for now to keep the Gema-Kalenjin peace in the Rift Valley. As the ‘No’ team captain in the Referendum campaigns, he is indifferent to the reform movement. Still, my favourite but for the ICC ‘sniffer dogs’ on his trail too.
Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka is a nice, decent man; not tribalist; nor linked to any financial impropriety.
But Kenyans just don’t like nice guys, and simply underrate him. Quite often, he bends backwards to please his friends, in disregard of public opinion.
I will not expect surprises from his trusted leadership but he will not disappoint too, if only the G7 bosses would anoint him. He had my vote until very recently. But time has not run out and the ball game may change.
Then comes Deputy PM Musalia Mudavadi, a modest gentleman of humility and simplicity. He does not put on airs; he is just himself at all times. No acting or rhetoric. He does not have a knack for economics, but is the kind who would leave the technocrats to pursue their Vision 2030 without hindrance. I like him most for championing the devolution thing; he may not stick his neck out for equity, but is nonetheless a fair mortal. He is closest to getting my vote than all of the above. But will he survive the heat in the kitchen till the final lap?
Frankly, I do not mind whether he is President Kibaki’s project or not. All of the above have at one time been Kibaki protégés or have loudly sought to be anointed. Mudavadi didn’t seek to be commissioned as a ‘project’.
But we are still a long way from ballot. Change is inevitable. I will wait for more action.
The writer is a former MP for Mandera Central and political economist.
Courtesy of Standard Digital
Americans for Hon. Billow Kerrow
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