I could be the next President of Kenya - Dr Ekuru Aukot

Dr Ekuru Aukot, a Presidential candidate in this year's August elections tell KEVIN OGUOKO why Kenyans are not taking him seriously, how can we can have our own 'Donald Trump Moment' and growing up with 27 siblings

Just why do you want to be the president of Kenya?

For the last 54 years, what we have experienced can be best described as a betrayal by the political class. The country has been reduced to a playing field of two family businesses having their way with tribal politics. The country strayed from the ideals of the freedom fighters that led to independence. After the First Liberation, what I call theft of public money and resources happened. The Second Liberation brought about the Orengos and the Kiraitus, but they too betrayed us. They simply repeated the same style of leadership. We are the Third Liberation movement, the Thirdway Alliance Party of Kenya.

Do you have a feeling Kenyans are not taking you seriously?

That’s because the playing field is not level. If it were, Kenyans would rally around Ekuru Aukot. The IEBC (Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission) has cleared eight candidates as per the Constitution to run for the presidency. But the presidential debate, organised by the media fraternity and expected to be watched by 30 million people, will have its own basis of choosing the candidates to participate in the debate. It is unfair to reduce the presidential election to a two-horse race. If the playing field was level, I would have a fair chance of clinching the presidency.

Why the presidency? Why not a Senate position, governor or MP first?

And why not the presidency? I have better ideas than the current candidates. Any Kenyan with the minimum qualification as set under Chapter 7 of the Constitution has a right to vie for the position of presidency. In fact, I’m late.

What do you think are your chances of winning the presidency?

Very high.

Do you think we’ll ever have a ‘Donald Trump moment’ in Kenya?

We can if we focus on issue-based politics and shun tribal politics. If we focused on the economic agenda, we’ll be better placed to see things as they are in Kenya. As a hardworking young man with a salary in Kenya you, should be able to afford a mortgage to own your own home. Did you know currently we only have 25,000 mortgages and a majority of the uptake is by professionals working in the financial industry? We need a Macron moment in this country. We did it in 2002 when we said goodbye to the Kanu era. This is the generation to move away from tribal politics and embrace issue-based politics.

There is speculation that your party is a mere NGO mouthpiece...

Thirdway Alliance is sponsored by ordinary wananchi. We’re starting an online crowdfunding campaign this week with a mobile money pay bill number. Now you can support our party with as little as Sh100. Our party is for everyone. It’s not possible to sponsor yourself to the tune of Sh5 billion for office and purport to work for Kenyans when you get there. A Kenyan president earns Sh132 million per year as salary.

Why are politicians not taking Chapter 6 of the Constitution on Leadership and Integrity seriously?

It is their greatest fault. What has happened is that the people we elected to be the custodians of the Constitution have turned out to be the wrong doers and we expect them to do right by us. Our mantra as Thirdway Alliance is, fagia wote. Only when we have a new crop of leaders will we be able to move together to a clearer and guaranteed future.

As a constitutional lawyer, what’s the basis of handing out land title deeds in one part of the country and have nearly non-existent in other parts?

After independence, land inducted corruption into the country. The president had special powers to allocate land and this only changed when the new Constitution was promulgated. Land was distributed to loyal friends already in powerful positions such as provincial commissioners and district commissioners. That’s why reports such as the Ndung’u Land Commission Report will never be implemented. It sweeps across the establishment created and validated decades back. Every other civil servant and political class was implicated. We should of course thank Oginga Odinga who stood firm against some parts of the country being grabbed wholly by the political class of those days.

How was it like growing up in a polygamous family?

It made me who I am. My father, Mzee Aukot, had four wives and 27 children, and he treated all of us equally. I was the first in the Aukot family to join university. It taught me the value of togetherness and how sharing and appreciating the little things is important. We had each other and that was more important than anything else.

You have a PhD, master’s in law from University of Warwick and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Nairobi. Which lecturer will you never forget?

An Indian professor, Prof Upendra Baxi gave me invaluable advice while in college. He used this term ‘Cyborg’ so often. He warned us against being just mere humans taken over by electromechanical devices such as mobile phones, which is what cyborg means. Every time I see people in restaurants or hanging out in various joints with their friends but spend half the time staring down on their phones, I am reminded of him. He taught us that law is an institutional change that each one of us have the responsibility to protect and advocate for.

Growing up in Turkana County, which childhood memories shaped you?

I was born in the infamous Kapedo area where inter-tribal conflicts are still a problem today, not to mention famine and drought. We were displaced from our home because of the conflicts, running away with what we could gather up in a matter of minutes because of the bullets zooming around us. Kenya needs leaders who have experienced such austerities and have a world view of what ordinary Kenyans go through. We shouldn’t trust leaders who were born in State House or whose fathers were Prime Minister of Kenya to care or even comprehend the plight of the ordinary mwananchi. They were born and bred in comfort zones. They can’t relate to us.