Spare aspirants tragedy of mongoose

By Okech Kendo

Presidential aspirants salivating for President Kibaki's endorsement should be aware of public distaste for 'projects' of all kinds.

Anyone who accepts to be a project is not good enough to lead, without the helping hand of a patron.

And anyone who imposes a project would be treated as having something to hide. The endorsee and the kingmaker shall ultimately suffer the fate of the mongoose. They belong to the same family of deception.

And any presidential aspirant who would want Uhuru Kenyatta or William Ruto’s support, should Moreno-Ocampo continue clawing, should be aware a project is a project by any other name.

And all known mongoose are alike and usually suffer the tragedy of being killed on behalf of the other. Any presidential aspirant unwise enough to agree to carry the burden of a project tag, would most likely face the tragedy of the mongoose at the hands of enlightened voters.

Plotting in clubs

Those politicians who insist a homeboy or homegirl should replace President Kibaki should also prepare to suffer the tragedy of the mongoose.

Any power deals on succession, plotted at golf and nightclubs, shall be treated as an assault on the intelligence of the electorate.

By the General Election, due next year, five years after the big bungle, the electorate should know once bitten they have got to be shy. Shy enough to reject hate-spewing and vendetta-driven presidential aspirants who would want to con their way into State House.

In 2012, the electorate should be conscious enough to know it is us the people alone, who should decide who the fourth president of the Republic of Kenya shall be.

Any tribal chief and kingmaker should know that although the power elite, who are also steak holders, could impose one of their own, voters are the stick holders, with the ultimate right to decide the destiny of the country under the new Constitution.

And anyone who hopes to be the flag bearer for his or her community should be aware of the coming tragedy of the mongoose. Tribes are not looking for presidents; Kenya is looking for national leadership.

Kenyans shall be looking for a Kenyan to lead the country out of the dungeon of deceit, conceit, corruption, and tribalism. They shall be looking for a cat, black or white, dark or brown, to take the country into the new age.

Which means leaders with mongoose tendencies are in trouble, now that people know they have the power to fire tested cheats and hire those who have shown they have the gravitas to move the country forward.

Inward looking MPs from central Kenya, therefore, should not set up Uhuru Kenyatta for constitutional lynching.

They are hurrying the Deputy Prime Minister to identify a party on whose ticket he would run for president in 2012.

They want to own him.

Last month, some of these anxious legislators forced Runyenjes MP Cecily Mbarire to read a statement that identified Uhuru, who is also the Minister for Finance, as the candidate for "our community".

Last year, the straight-shooting Kangema MP, John Michuki, identified Jomo Kenyatta’s son as the gateway to Central Province.

The elderly politician, for whom no word is too sensitive to mince, had then said anyone who wants the Kikuyu vote must go through Uhuru wa Kenyatta.

There was even a promise then, that sounded like a threat to deal with those who dare challenge the endorsement of a presidential aspirant for central Kenya.

Those who want to ‘divide’ the Mt Kenya vote were then asked to go slow so that they do not rattle the choice of the community.

Although Central Province vote has always been divided, now there is added urgency to serve it in one basket to keep power within the House of Mumbi.

Advocates of this plot have identified Gichugu MP Martha Karua and Gatanga MP Peter Kenneth as the most likely to challenge Uhuru’s endorsement.

The Karuaesque reaction is that, and she is right, that her presidential ambition is about running for national leadership. Which means dividing the Kikuyu vote has never crossed her mind. She wants to unite the national vote in the hope she would be the first woman president. That ambition, she has often said, is not negotiable. She is not anyone’s project, or any community’s or gender’s representative.

The craving for an Uhuru presidency has gotten frantic, with observers seeing in it more than meets the eye. If they succeed in preaching the gospel according to nyumba, they would have laid a trap for the scion of the founding president in a way that echoes the tragedy of the mongoose.

Revenge hunt

Now, this mongoose business echoes the plight of a chicken farmer. One day, he woke up to find that the chicken coop has been raided in a way that called for a revenge hunt for the sinning mongoose.

Living by a bushy river, the chicken farmer knew where the hunt for the mongoose would begin.

Many times over, a herd of mongoose had been cited in the neighbourhood, plotting raids. For the hunt and for this farmer and his friends any mongoose would be guilty as charged.

—The writer is The Standard’s Managing Editor Quality and Production.

kendo@standardmedia.co.ke