By Standard Reporter
With the launch of his own first political alliance on Sunday, Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta hit the trickiest and hardest stretch of his political career.
It is a stretch littered by the set of hurdles erected by his indictment by International Criminal Court at The Hague , Netherlands over grave crimes against humanity, for which he has the option of
attending a crucial session of the court next month.
This will be less than less than a month after he leapfrogged his party — The National Alliance (TNA) — to the starting blocks of next year’s race to succeed President Kibaki.
With the launch, coming after his fellow G7 Alliance luminary William Ruto unveiled his United Republican Party (URP) in January, makes him the second ICC suspect in the big race. Both have to overcome the ICC full trial hurdle — for which they are left with one appeal before they know their fate — if they are to run for Presidency.
Because he may not have to labour much to get the TNA ticket, Uhuru will in turn have the second hurdle to overcome, which is convincing Kenyans he is not merely riding on a numerically strong ‘tidal wave’ from Mount Kenya, for whose regional and political interests the ICC prosecutor claims he organised Mungiki revenge killings in 2008.
ICC
On the issue of the ICC trial, Uhuru’s spokesman Mr Munyori Buku maintains that he will be on the ballot paper. He further claimed those out to stop Uhuru were afraid of seeing him on the ballot.
“Nothing in law stops him from vying. The ICC has said it and the Kenyan Law do not stop him either. Those pushing this notion are insincere and afraid of Mr Uhuru Kenyatta’s candidacy because the country knows that one is innocent until proven guilty,” he added.
Barring frustrations by the ICC, Uhuru will also have to persuade not only the powerful politicians propping the G7 Alliance — such as Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka, Mr Chirau Ali Mwakwere, Mr Eugene Wamalwa and Ruto — for a joint nomination, with the hope that he wins and goes ahead for the big race with their back-up.
In doing so, Uhuru will have two issues to tackle, one being shattering the perception that by being the son of the Founding Father, he was born with a silver spoon and may not be attuned to the challenges ordinary Kenyans face on a daily basis. On the Internet, social media sites are already brimming with talk of the vast land parcels the Kenyatta family control in areas such as the Coast, which is awash with talk of ‘historical injustices’, the top most being land rights.
Secondly, in this respect, Uhuru will have to confront the reality that, given the tribalised nature of Kenyan politics and its influence on the pattern of alliance building, Kenyans will have to decide if they want to pick their fourth President from the Mount Kenya region, which has already had two — Mzee Kenyatta and Kibaki.
“I know as my brother Uhuru launches his Presidential bid there are those who will want us all to look at him through tribal blinkers and see just another Kikuyu. I also know that there are those that will look at him and will just see him as the son of another famous father (Jomo Kenyatta),” Wamalwa said at Uhuru’s party launch, obviously as a direct anticipation of some of the hurdles his ally would have to surmount.
Uhuru will also be facing the test of his time to prove that unlike in 2002 when on his first trial run, he was voted out largely because of perceptions he was a political greenhorn and a ‘Moi Project’, he is his own man.
He also lost because he was perceived to have been thrust on Kenyans by former President Moi, and because of the circumstances under which he got the Kanu ticket, he was perceived to be a candidate for a select privileged and moneyed.
Run from Kanu
This triggered a run from Kanu by high-profiled politicians who in the least expected the nomination process would be rigorous and competitive. They include Prime Minister Raila Odinga, former Vice President George Saitoti, Cabinet minister William ole Ntimama, Mr Joseph Kamotho and Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka.
Today Uhuru is set to fight it out for the presidential seat with three of the leaders who left Kanu on account of his being handpicked by Moi. They are Saitoti, Kalonzo and Raila. Alongside the three, he also has to contend with the presidential ambitions of his two most trusted backers in the 2002 race; Ruto and Mudavadi.
It is against the backdrop of these challenges that are being weighted as major hurdles Uhuru has to overcome that Uhuru’s grand launch, which followed what looked like a 2008 President Barack Obama’s script, is being looked at.
Although Kibaki has not openly endorsed him, it is telling that for his running mate Uhuru appears to have settled on Saboti MP Eugene Wamalwa, who in recent Cabinet changes perceived to have been a boardroom war against the ICC by the Kibaki, clinched the Justice ministry docket. Wamalwa did in fact play a prominent role at Uhuru’s launch at Kenyatta International Conference Centre, where he introduced the son of Jomo to speak.
