Uhuru dramatically changes with only his legacy on the agenda

In this year of our Lord 2018, we are at the end of the Mwai Kibaki regime, and are now entering the Uhuru Kenyatta regime. Let me explain. In political theory the word regime is not merely a description of a government in office. A regime and an administration are not synonymous. A regime is a pattern of actions and norms. It is the implicit and explicit standards, rules and intentions that inform decision-making. A regime displays a clear-cut order of interactions and actions consolidated into a discernable way of doing things. So in other words, the term regime is a reference to how the state is being run, not who is running the state. A regime therefore does not change with a new president; it is the president who changes the regime.

In Kenya, we have had four presidents so far, but we have only had three regimes: the Kenyatta/Moi regime was the first. The Jomo and Moi regimes were largely the same. They had similar political tactics, the same merry-go-round of politicians and administrators, and the same modus operandi.

Difficult to predict

This Jomo/Moi regime ended in 1982 with the attempted coup. The second was the Moi regime, which was then followed by the third; the Kibaki/Uhuru regime. In 2002, the Moi regime came to an end because things changed with the Kibaki regime. Although the people were recycled, the way things were done was different. This is for the simple reason that the basis upon which the Narc party took power was to NOT do things the Moi way. So there was a deliberate effort to obliterate the former president’s power system.

However, in 2013 when Uhuru Kenyatta became president the regime did not change. The pattern of governance that Uhuru’s administration adopted mirrored the Kibaki order. But here we are in 2018, and there appears to be a clear and dramatic regime change. This regime change is happening in the second term of Uhuru’s presidency. The ‘Kibaki Auto-pilot mode’ is off, Uhuru is now firmly on the controls.

Ironically, the regime ‘about-turn’ is coming at a time when the president has declared that he is distancing himself from politics to focus on development. In my view, he has never engaged in politics as much as he is engaging now. In fact, this is high politics. But then again, development can never happen without politics. It appears that Uhuru is finally reading from the political playbook of power. He seems to be doing three things. 

The first and most dramatic thing is that he has assumed formlessness. He is getting more difficult to predict by the day. For instance, he appointed the former DPP Tobiko to the Ministry of Environment, the same ministry arap Moi gave to Mbiyu Koinage, and  Kibaki gave to Michuki to size them down. Overnight, Tobiko went from being a powerful, autonomous DPP, to taking care of forests and monkeys. So rude. What’s worse, the new Uhuru can do a reshuffle without notice and forget to mention Tobiko’s name. An unpredictable Uhuru has taken over, and he is whipping people into line. Not to mention that in a short space of time, he has a new Attorney General, a new Solicitor-General, a new Director of Public Prosecutions, and new heads of the police units, and a near-overhauled Cabinet.

Secondly, he is giving ‘love’ the contempt card. It looks like Uhuru has stopped being ‘Mr Nice-Guy’. This approach will serve him well, particularly as he pursues the ‘Big Four.’ He is set to clear the obstacles that stand on the way of his development plans. Thirdly, he has become shameless. He deported a ‘Kenyan’ just to switch off the political noise, he unapologetically shut down three TV stations, and baffled us by arresting the ‘swearing-in page boys’ instead of the oath-taker himself. At this rate, do not be surprised if the Raphael Tuju letter to Maraga was drafted by Uhuru himself.

In this new regime, Uhuru has chosen to win through action and not argument, with only his legacy on the agenda. The metamorphosis of Uhuru is interesting to watch, but it will be more interesting to see the end result. After a year and a half of nauseating politics, it is time for a regime that talks less.

- The writer is a PhD candidate in Political Economy at SMC University and a research fellow at Fort Hall School of Government. [email protected]