President Uhuru Kenyatta is increasingly cutting a lonely figure. He seems to be the only one at all interested in any legacy for the Jubilee government if there ever is a legacy for this jubilee government. The primary focus for most politicians is currently on the in the 2022 political race depicted in the Kibra member’s by-election.
The President is increasingly becoming surrounded by a group whose primary focus is not on achieving his big four agenda. This group is preparing for a possible face-off between his deputy president and his handshake mate in former premier Raila Odinga.
His backyard, in central where one would have expected that he would find the backing to achieve his legacy, is divided as ever. A clear picture of the Kirinyaga governor in the front row of the ODM’s final push for the Kibra parliamentary by-election and Mr Ruto flanked by the Tanga tanga Mps’ Kimani Ichungwa, and John Kiarie clearly shows the deepening rift in the house of Mumbi.
This might have led to him giving the Kibra politics a wide berth. He has had to juggle between having to impress his handshake mate’s push for a referendum with the Building Bridges Initiative, something that puts him in direct collision with his deputy.
The economy is not helping matters. A ballooning international debt, a high inflation rate is pushing the prices of the essential commodities off the roof, not helping with the Kenyan confidence in this administration.
Unga, a staple food among many, is retailing at 130sh with the millers citing a shortage of maize from farmers and pause on the duty-free maize imports. His rejection of the banking amendment act and the subsequent removal of the rate caps have not augured well with many Kenyans.
Whatever vision the President has for Kenya, he is on his own! He is not with the Kenyans. Most Kenyans do not see any results from these initiatives with the debt spent on infrastructural development that some economists argue are not feasible.
He is not with the deputy president whose eyes are set on the presidency 2030. He is not with the former who, apart from forging for possible political pacts for 2022, is advocating for political reforms that will take the gas off the any of the President’s agenda.