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Is President Uhuru Kenyatta grooming his sons to take over the mantle of political leadership and with it, the continued grip of the Kenyattas on national politics?
His opponent, Nasa flag bearer Raila Odinga had daughter Rosemary being groomed to take over his former Lang’ata Parliamentary seat, but unfortunately got indisposed before the April nominations.
His son, Fidel Odinga, who had been tipped to inherit his political kingdom, sadly died in 2015.
Raila’s running mate, Kalonzo Musyoka had to battle political headwinds after attempts at having his son Kennedy Musyoka nominated to the lucrative East African Legislative Assembly.
Uhuru’s running mate and Deputy President William Ruto, on the other hand, has been parading his son, Nick Ruto, during political rallies in which he was called to “greet wananchi” which in Kenyan political parlance is understood to mean “watch out for this heir.”
But it was the use of Uhuru Kenyatta’s second born son, Muhoho, recently which got political observers reassessing afresh the trend of dangling scions of political families at public rallies, triggering a fierce debate whether Kenyans are watching the grooming of the next generation of successors from long serving political dynasties even before Kenyans return to the ballot for another round of presidential re-run.
Muhoho was part of Uhuru’s campaign machinery to woo the youth.
This parading has triggered an impassioned debate with some faulting these political dynasties of poking the collective public nose of Kenyans with impunity through thrusting their privileged progeny at a time when the country is agonising over national crisis and paralysis precipitated by the same ruling dynasties.
Indeed, the Kenyattas and the Odingas have held the country in a political paralysis precipitated by the struggle for power and perpetual feuds dating back to the 1960s. Latter day Johnny-come-lately, Ruto and Musyoka, not quite oozing the class pedigree that comes with old money, are angling to create their own political dynasties through their sons, and new money.
Political observers intimated to The Nairobian that what Kenyans are observing is ‘political socialization’ where the voting public gets used to these sons being in the public limelight such that when an official government appointment comes calling, the public hardly gets surprised. It is part of the ‘political drilling’ through public relations.
The latest show that set the social media alight is the introduction of baby-faced Muhoho Kenyatta at a high profile political rally in Nandi by Deputy President, William Ruto last Sunday.
The budding fashion designer whose only claim to fame was news that he had launched a ‘kitenge suits ‘ fashion line the previous year, has been trending on social media after displaying his Kiswahili skills that would do with a bit of polishing in night classes.
He read greetings to the crowd from his smart phone, but being called to greet the people is a way of saying “watch out for this heir.”
Muhoho has joined a raft of youngsters from prominent families still spotting tufts of college moustache, who have lately been making appearances at high profile political gatherings ostensibly to attract the youth into their parents political adventures.
Muhoho’s first appearance at the birthday party of now Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko in 2016 sent cheeky tongues wagging if he would be his running mate for Nairobi’s governor’s mansion in 2017.
Muhoho’s latest appearance on national TV, came a week after his sister, Ngina Kenyatta, made news after joining her mother, First Lady Margaret Kenyatta, on a charitable and vote-hunt outing in West Pokot where they were captured threshing maize and walking dusty village foot paths.
In 2016, Muhoho and his elder brother, Jomo, attended a fundraising in Narok where they donated Sh1 million in aid of women groups. The donation, they said, was a gift from their father who was then lunging for a piece of the Maa vote ahead of the 2017 elections.
Being groomed also means rubbing shoulders with continental figures as was evidence when Uhuru Kenyatta and the First Lady took their sons with them to the Entebbe State House in Kampala Uganda to meet President Yoweri Museveni in August 2015.
Jomo was back in the limelight during his hushed marriage to Fiona Achola, the granddaughter of the late Luo politician Dr William Odongo Omamo whose daughter is Defense Cabinet Secretary Raychelle Omamo.
Fiona Achola, who has Luo, Kikuyu and Ugandan blood, became a Kenyatta, with the coolest mother-in-law to boot, during ‘Ngurario’ a traditional Kikuyu wedding ceremony at her parent’s Miotioni home in Nairobi’s Karen estate on October 22, 2016.
When not playing in national politics, dynasties are perpetuated through inter-marriages and schooling: the Kenyatta children sang ‘Lift Up Your Hearts’ school song at the prestigious Hilton College and its old rival, Michaelhouse in KwaZulu Natal Midlands, South Africa.
Schooling plays an integral role in all the parental system of deliberate conditioning of grooming as Hilton is a favourite of African presidents, captains of industry of powerful political plays.
Economist Nidd Ngoro told The Nairobian in a past interview that this deliberate conditioning is meant “to ensure it is easier for them to grow into influence and maintain power and authority.”
It is not lost on pundits with institutional memory that Uhuru Kenyatta himself was often at the court of his father, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta. He was weaned at his political knee and bakora which explains the ease with which power rubs off on him.
Pretty unlike the hitherto unexposed, and whose infertile thrills at the trapping of political power, reveals all the rough edges of their social class wrapped under ill-fitting imported suits, including skirt and trouser suits.
