Uhuru and the ghost of Kenya's past

When in 2002 the crumbling Moi and KANU regime in Kenya nominated, with obvious orchestration from President MOI (a.k.a. MY OWN INTEREST), the son of the former founding President, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, as its presidential candidate, I was one of many outside observers who commented that the old Fox was desperate and desperately hanging unto any straws.

Uhuru, the anointed one, was a relative new comer to Kenyan politics and had nothing going for him other than his surname. His first foray into politics was both a personal disaster and comeuppance to Moi/KANU for taking the loyalty of Kenyan voters for granted assuming that the people of Gatundu, the Kenyatta constituency, will vote for anybody or anything, for that matter as long as Kenyatta was the last name. In 1997 Uhuru contested and lost most embarrassingly to a relatively unknown Nairobi architect, Mwihia, in a great electoral upset. Many felt that Uhuru’s political end came from the beginning and predicted his sunset before it even rose.

To choose someone who could not even deliver his father’s feudal estate as a presidential candidate, five years later, was indeed a sign of desperation. Needless to say that Uhuru and KANU deservingly lost that election to an overwhelming desire for democratic change by Kenyans that produced the current multiparty alliance government led by President Mwai Kibaki.

Not a few analysts and observers thought that the unwilling politician (pressed by family, Moi and KANU interests) that Uhuru was he would gracefully retire from politics and go back to the family business that he understood better. But he has hung on and he seems to be gaining both in confidence and acquiring personal political credibility that may yet make him a viable alternative leader for the country. Thanks to the unbridled ambitions of various fat egos in the NARC alliance the Kibaki government is virtually in paralysis and is increasingly forced to rely on KANU direct or indirect support to thwart his alliance partners. The exasperation of the jubilant and triumphalist electorate of 2002 is such that many are beginning to look back at KANU years as probably ‘not too bad after all’. Even those who will not go that far may say with extreme despair that ‘this is not what we expected’ and some will even argue that ‘the new lot are as bad as KANU’. Politics of despair works in favour of a shrewd opposition. Since most of the big parties are in the governing alliance this leaves KANU as the only credible formal political opposition. Uhuru accepted his defeat most gracefully and one must say that even Moi disengaged himself in a surprisingly dignified way much to the pleasant surprise of many critics who thought that the Old man would not go out peacefully. Since 2002 Uhuru seemed to have been putting his personal stamp and authority on KANU in a moderate reform agenda to ease out the Old guard, exorcise Moi’s ghost and also show Kenyans that he is much more than just his illustrious surname.

Take his recent frank statement to a KANU meeting apologising to Kenyans for the mistakes and wrongs done by KANU in its 40 years strangle hold on the politics, economy and society of Kenya. According to a BBC report ‘Mr Kenyatta noted a long list of acts KANU could be held responsible for. These included the repression of opposition activists, the lack of government accountability and politically motivated tribal clashes’. Quoting Uhuru directly: "I offer my most sincere apology to all Kenyans for mistakes made during the tenure of our party and call upon our members to join in this apology,"

How many politicians on this continent will be this humble and honest? Would a Babangida in Nigeria who robbed and ruined the country for 8 years and is now clamouring to return to finish his demolition job be contrite enough to say ‘sorry’? Someone who annulled a democratic election and has never explained to the public is now hoping to bribe his way back to power through democracy without remorse or shame or even sense of irony! 10 years after Genocide in Rwanda many MRND leaders and their allies in the clergy and other apologists continue to deny the Genocide and despite many of them professing religious faith have never expressed remorse let alone ask for forgiveness. IN Uganda how many of those anti Museveni Multi partyists who are rightly criticising the government and struggling against its growing excesses have ever taken the time to accept their own past responsibilities?

The queries are endless about the lack of political responsibility by both government and opposition in Africa. Many of our Opposition politicians think all they have to do is just oppose. But the opposition of today could be the government of tomorrow or in some cases were the government of yesterday. What kind of democracy is it that we are trying to build where governments (previous, present or future) do no wrong?

Uhuru’s honest confrontation with the ghosts of KANU past, whatever his motivations, is a breath of fresh air.

I disagree with him when in the same meeting he reportedly insisted that the responsibility is not collective. Politically it was a party based regime therefore KANU cannot claim successes without owning up to the failures too. However I am in full agreement with him in his "… call upon all individuals - present or past... responsible for those acts and omissions which so much aggrieved Kenyans to publicly own up, offer their individual apologies and seek forgiveness from the people of Kenya," How many politicians in government and outside of government will take up the challenge for political responsibility for their actions or inactions?