“KKK Alliance” is Dead And Should Be Buried

A worn-out cliché in Kenya has it that Kenyans in Diaspora “have been away for too long” that they should have no business commenting on issues back home because “they have lost touch with reality”. According to a common pontification that routinely finds expression in the mainstream media, the family of Diaspora Kenyans have “nothing to teach” poor countrymen back home because Kenyans abroad “are not on the ground” and should therefore just “shut up” even if the country is burning.
However, a cursory look at political analysis in the Kenyan media sometimes exposes a pathetic level of mediocrity that ought to be called to attention. A case in point is the flood of analysis of the impending 2012 election and the moribund “KKK Alliance” which is supposed to be led by the ODM renegade, William Ruto, Deputy Prime Minister, Uhuru Kenyatta and Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka. This troika of latter day opportunists are constantly sold by the media as a “formidable force” that key players “will have to recon with” because the still to be formed KKK Alliance “will be a big factor” come 2012. It is in the face of such spurious conclusions that an intervention becomes necessary.
Kalonzo Musyoka
Following the theft of the December 2007 elections, Kalonzo Musyoka was basically written off as a politician. After assisting PNU cling on to power by collaborating with thieves who stole elections and installed president Kibaki in the middle of the night, Kalonzo is more popular as the ultimate “Judas Iscariot” in Kenyan politics than a Messiah of the Kamba people. His Party, ODM-Kenya, has been taken over by his opponents who have argued that his cooperation with PNU was a personal decision for personal gain, not a party policy.
His Kamba people are still furious with him because following his collaboration with PNU, Kambas across the country were beaten senseless and chased out of their abodes because of the perception that they were part and parcel of thieves who stole elections. During the Referendum on a new Constitution, Kalonzo failed to mobilize his people to vote “Yes” because of waning influence among his people. How then will Kalonzo lead his people into a KKK Alliance?
Kalonzo’s problems are confounded by the fact that Charity Ngilu, the Minister of Health who is in ODM, has a huge influence in Kamba land that is constantly threatening Kalonzo’s authority. When Kalonzo is projected as the King-pin in Kamba politics, where are the facts that could lead to this conclusion?
Uhuru Kenyatta
Since the days of Kenya’s first President, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, Central Province, the origin of the largest ethnic group in Kenya, has had no anointed leader. Current President Mwai Kibaki is not a “Kikuyu leader” but the beneficiary of being at the right place at the right time. Every ethnic group in Kenya wants their kith to be in State House and when it emerged that Kibaki had the greatest chance in both 2002 and 2007, Kikuyus voted for him en masse. By projecting Uhuru Kenyatta as the Kikuyu flag bearer in the theoretical “KKK Alliance”, the assumption is that the young Uhuru will be the “Kikuyu leader” come 2012. However, what are the facts?
When Kimendeero John Michuki recently proposed Uhuru Kenyatta to be promulgated Kikuyu leader to guide the community in 2012, he was widely condemned, not by the Luo, the Luhya or the Kalenjin but by the very Kikuyu leaders who believe that there is no room for ethnic leaders in Kikuyu land with the most vocal opponent having been Martha Karua, Chairperson of Narc-Kenya. The view was that no one could impose a leader on the Kikuyu and that every leader must fight it out personally. The point is that there is a huge split within the Kikuyu when it comes to ethnic leaders in current Kenyan politics so how will Uhuru Kenyatta lead the Kikuyu into the yet to be formed KKK Alliance?
Secondly, it is an accepted fact that come 2012, Kenya will not have another Kikuyu President and even Kikuyus at the grass roots are united on this point. Why? During her 47 years of independence, and assuming that Kibaki completes his term, Kenya shall have had a Kikuyu President in State House for 25 years (Kenyatta 15 years and Kibaki 10 years).
Instead of seeking for a Presidential candidate, the Kikuyu are seeking for a political partner who will be able to guarantee and safeguard their economic interests in Kenya after 2012. Today, that partner is Raila Odinga whose stolen Presidency is widely accepted by millions of Kenyans who went to the streets to demand haki yao. Even if Uhuru Kenyatta joins the KKK Alliance to work with traitor Kalonzo et al, any Kikuyu leader who seeks an Alliance with Raila Odinga is likely to enjoy a bigger sway of the Kikuyu vote because of two reasons.
Just like the Kalenjin, Kikuyus at the grass roots have experienced the fallacy of “wealth trickling down” because their man is in State House. They are tired of paying the price of their man “being in power” without any tangible benefits. Following the stealing of Raila Odinga’s Presidency in 2007, Kikuyus at the grass roots paid the ultimate price because it is their houses which were torched in the Rift Valley, hundreds of their people murdered in cold blood and others chased from their houses across the country because their man had stolen the vote.
Today, hundreds of IDPs still languishing in the camps are Kikuyus who have been left without help despite their man occupying State House. Assuming that he joins the KKK Alliance, how will Uhuru Kenyatta convince millions of skeptical Kikuyus about the need to work with the Kalenjin after tragic historical experiences that have tended to isolate the Kikuyu? My take is that any progress on any Uhuru-based KKK Alliance will only be realized if no Kikuyu leader teams up with ODM in an alternative Alliance and there is no shortage of Kikuyu leaders seeking this opportunity. Why are commentators presenting  a skewed analysis of the situation?
Further, Uhuru did play with Ruto in the run-up to the Referendum before he dumped him to join Raila and Kibaki in the “Yes” camp. The KKK Alliance could have been built during the Referendum and the only reason why it did not materialize is that it was not viable.
William Ruto
Going by Kenya’s brand of ethnic politics, and after Moi, a Kalenjin, held power for 24 years, is Kenya ready for another Kalenjin President? This sums up Ruto’s case of ever making it to State House in 2012. Although Ruto is a very vocal politician, he lacks a sound strategy, either because he doesn’t understand the ethnic nature of Kenyan politics or his advisors are deliberately misleading him for some reason.
Ruto could have been a force to recon with if his Referendum experiment had succeeded but it crashed and he lost with a landslide majority. How will he emerge from this huge defeat to set up a national Alliance that will propel him to State House? What is known is that when Kibaki lost the Referendum in November 2005, he lost the vote two years later so how will Ruto convert the Referendum defeat into a victory?
Ruto’s fortunes could have matured easily in ODM than in any other unknown formation but he missed it due to misplaced ambition. When he joined ODM, Kenyans almost forgot his dirty past during his days in KANU where he opposed the re-writing of a new Constitution and declared that Moi ought to rule Kenya for 100 years. Apart from corruption charges facing him in court, and his possible indictment by ICC notwithstanding, Ruto has not yet cultivated a national image that could hand him Kenya’s Presidency. He is still fighting for “his people” (the Kalenjin) and until he begins to fight for the Luhya, the Luo, the Kikuyu and others, his Presidential ambitions will continue to remain a pipe dream.
The Kalenjin at the grass roots chased away the Kikuyu and seized their land. This is the status quo that the Kalenjin at the grass roots would like to maintain. Any political Alliance with Uhuru Kenyatta might meet with opposition in Kalenjin land because of the issue of land confiscated from the Kikuyu. After several evictions of the Kikuyu from the Rift Valley dating back to “ethnic clashes” that were engineered by Moi, the Kikuyu do not trust the Kalenjin so how will an Alliance between the two ethnic groups be forged at the grass roots?
The KKK Alliance is dead and its proponents ought to have been preparing for its funeral, not its resurrection. However, it will remain alive at the rhetorical and propaganda level because after the Referendum, KKK proponents went bankrupt while the media needs sensation to keep newspaper sales up and running. The main victims are the uncritical readers who may be lapping the KKK package without second thoughts.