Mt Kenya's political 'soap opera' shouldn't make us to ignore key issues

 Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua and Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki. [File, Standard]

Kenyans are easy to distract. Just three months after the pivotal events of June 25th, political sideshows have completely taken over, and it would appear as if we are back to business as usual with the political class contriving arguments amongst themselves as opposed to hankering down and serving the people. Over the past months or so, the nation has sat back and watched Mount Kenya leaders wrangling amongst themselves over who should have true leadership of the region. Apparently, the people have lost trust in Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua and, at the same time, President William Ruto is shutting him out. Last week, a section of Njuri Ncheke leaders declared that their new leader was officially Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki. But really, aren’t all these people on the same side?

It is impressive that the citizenry has forgotten that this same charade was played out in the last administration when then Deputy President Ruto began to express discomfort at being sidelined by President Uhuru Kenyatta. The narrative at the time was that the government was running its projects with hardly any input from the deputy president. This narrative, which ran throughout the course of President Kenyatta’s second term in office, set the stage for Ruto to set up an entirely new platform and show up on the ballot as a candidate untainted by the legacies of the previous administration. Flash forward to the present day, and Gachagua is setting up the same model, leaving the people to debate whether or not he has the capabilities to take over come 2027. Not only is this conversation premature, it is also narrow minded, taking zero account of the possibilities we can have before us, beyond recycling the same handful of tired politicians.

I have written here before about the power that the Fifth Estate yields in manufacturing consent for certain decisions to be made even as we feel as though we are making these decisions independently and of our own volition. The media has given these political wrangles much too much airtime to the point of having the deputy president sit down for a two and a half hour interview where he bemoaned, amongst other things, being taken out of a Whatsapp group, and not knowing where the President was travelling to on the night of the interview, even though the itinerary of the President was common knowledge to all with the UN General Assembly convening this week. By making such a mountain out of the molehill of events taking place on the mountain, the media ensures that the populace believes that their options are limited to the leaders that are constantly shoved in their faces. Will President Ruto return in 2027? Will Gachagua oust him? Perhaps Kindiki will emerge victorious? Again, even whilst these conversations continue ad infinitum, none of them are relevant to our current conditions.

If anything, participating and encouraging these conversations is a slap in the face of the struggle that the youth initiated three months ago. We cannot forget the dozens of lives that were lost as youth expressed their constitutional right to protest. We can also not forget that these lives were lost under the watch of Kindiki, then the Interior Cabinet Secretary in the government headed by President Ruto and his deputy Gachagua. These are the more relevant conversations.

As well, as the back and forth between the murima strongholds unfolds, unemployment remains sky high, with the only solution provided being the export of labour. Whilst the Finance Bill was rejected, the government is passing certain provisions of it into law through the back door, covered under other Bills. The taking of loans to supplement money lost to corruption has only been increasing, even though crippling debt was one of the reasons the Finance Bill was opposed. We cannot lose sight of what truly matters in favour of watching a political soap opera unfold. Instead, we must set our eyes on the most important things.

Ms Gitahi is an international lawyer