After this year’s Madaraka Day celebrations at Muliro Stadium in Bungoma County, Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki decried ethnic mobilisation, terming it dangerous. Barely three months later, he is a beneficiary of ethnic mobilisation spearheaded by a section of wrangling MPs in Central Kenya.
At least 48 Mt Kenya region MPs have endorsed Prof Kindiki as their supreme leader and link to the national government. However, the necessity and rationale behind such a linkage in a country that boasts of a defined leadership structure is yet to be expounded.
Ethnic mobilisation is the process through which groups of people rally around ethnic identities in the pursuit of certain goals. The 48 MPs who threw their weight behind Kindiki are mostly young and opposed to the leadership of Deputy President Rigathi Gachgua. Leading this band of causeless young Turks is Kimani Ichung'wah, the leader of Majority in Parliament.
Off cue, it is hard to lay a finger on what Gachagua did to deserve disrespect from these MPs. His call to unite the people of the mountain, intriguingly, seems to have rubbed Ichung'wah the wrong way. For some time now, there has been jostling over who should be the Mt Kenya region spokesperson yet, in the hierarchy of leadership, Gachagua is the senior-most and should be accorded such status.
Raila Odinga’s name finds itself at the heart of the disharmony in a region that has, for the longest time, remained cohesive, united by its fear of boogeyman Raila.
It wasn't until after the 2022 general elections that some leaders from Central Kenya owned up to having demonised Raila in the region just to ensure he did not ascend to the presidency. This conditioning of the minds of a people is beginning to unravel, posing a threat to the machinations of a few individuals who stand to benefit from the status quo.
Gachagua’s demeanour mirrors Ruto’s determination to succeed President Uhuru Kenyatta in 2022, and therein lies the rub. Leaders who believe they can mortgage a whole community to support Ruto for a second term and ride on that wave to self-aggrandisement see Gachagua as an obnoxious individual angling to rain on their parade. Like the voters, they, too, suffer the effects of conditioned minds.
The malady of conditioned minds appears to have enslaved young leaders to a point that their minds operate between two extremes; love and hate. They are obsessed with status, cultural identity and exhibit fawning political subservience to the presidency. The conditioned mind, as it were, is closed to reality, choosing to operate in a utopian world.
The beef between Gachagua and the young Turks notwithstanding, leaders must project values that ordinary citizens can emulate. They should learn to disagree in a civil and mature manner without being obtuse.
Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja's response to Gachagua on the X platform regarding the Wakulima market relocation plan, for example, was condescending and disrespectful. More so because Gachagua’s tone in appealing to Sakaja to reconsider his plans was respectful, never once undermining his authority as governor.
Ichung'wah has been very caustic with Gachagua, completely oblivious of the fact that the political tide could change and thrust him at the feet of the latter. Clearly, the shifts that have manifested in the last two years, more recently the Gen Z uprising and Raila's improbable entry into the corridors of power, and the attendant disruptions, have completely eluded the young Turks. They seem hard of learning.
While Gachagua stands a higher chance of becoming Kenya's president today, it's not even a speck on the distant horizon for Ichung'wah, if at all. It is imperative for young leaders to learn the art of public speaking and diplospeak. They must develop the knack to anticipate reaction to their public pronouncements, hence avoid the gaffes they are prone to.
