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Is Kalonzo Musyoka Really Presidential Material?
#77 - 0--clubafrika--Is Kalonzo Musyoka Really Presidential Material?--2006-03-05 00:49:23
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KALONZO MUSYOKA: IS HE REALLY WHAT KENYA NEEDS NOW?
I have many personal reasons why I like Mr. Kalonzo Musyoka as a politician. Like a true politician, it is not easy to place him. It is not easy to tell whether he genuinely likes you or he is merely being polite and accommodating. When Kalonzo laughs, it is difficult to feel that the man is laughing and that the laughter is coming from the bottom of his heart. He is not like Raila Odinga who can laugh publicly until you see tears rolling down his cheeks. Kalonzo's laugherter is controlled and measured to comply with a particular joke.
Unfortunately, in politics, public substantial understanding of the politician counts for 60% of her success and level of acceptability because the more you make it difficult for them to understand you, the more time they will spend trying to unravel the mystery surrounding you at the expense of their trust for you. If they can't trust you readily they can't vote for you easily either.
However, Kalonzo Musyoka has a very keen sense of identifying useful alliances from the crowd even from the people he comes across casually. But he can be painfully cold and dismissive if you find him in other circumstances where displaying public acquaintance with you may alienate other more important forces in the vicinity. He shares this trait comfortably with the late Robert Ouko when he was alive and in power. - The other gossip that his close associates are credited with is that he has a soft spot for idlers and rumour-mongerers, especially if they are the type that masquerade as his informers and die-hard supporters. They say Kalonzo can easily hate you deeply if one of his trusted friends tells a damaging lie about you. He becomes extremely irritated and vindictive if he learns that one of his trusted supporters is spotted hob-knobbing with his imagined or perceived political rivals. They also say he hates competitive politics where he sees a chance to sail through unopposed. That is why most of his so called political opponents in Ukambani are considered his political enemies. He does not distinguish between competitive politics and personal enmity. To him, they are one and the same thing.
What makes Kalonzo stand out in any given situation is his ability to practice politics without mingling with the rabble. He is a known tea-tottler, a consummate born again Christian and a powerful orator on any given political platform. More importantly, at over 50 years, he still adorns his youthful college boy face and the afro-hair style he adopted in the mid seventies while at the university.
Compared to Raila, Musalia Mudavadi, Najib Balala, William Ruto and Uhuru Kenyatta, the only person who measures up to Kalonzo's power of speech is Uhuru Kenyatta, closely followed by William Ruto and Najib Balala in that order.
However, while Raila and Musalia Mudavadi may not have the eloquence and powerful delivery in the English and Kiswahili languages, which have been mastered by Kalonzo, Uhuru and Ruto, Musalia beats them all in amiability and general goodness of a man who has known intimate political power.
On this score, Raila beats them hands down on two fronts; grassroots mobilization and sheer powerful speeches delivered endlessly in parables of the football game and animal characters. Raila and Musalia also enjoy one thing in common; a good drink in a local pub after a hard days work. And they do it in the company of the mighty and lowly with occasional drink coming from and to the ordinary mwananchi. This ability to mix socially has endeared Raila and Musalia to the grassroots supporters more than any of their peers. It makes ordinary people see them, shake their hands and appreciate oneness with them.
Although Uhuru also shares an occasional drink with Kenyans, his however is confined to his youthful cronies and buddies he grew up and went to school with. But, despite this limitation, Uhuru's ability to go back to his roots makes his peers appreciate one fact; that power has not gone to his head.
This week, Kalonzo Musyoka has been on the headlines for the wrong reasons. Although he has come out and publicly denied it, some one feels very strongly that he was spotted at State House late in the evening having tea with President Kibaki alone. The person who spotted Kalonzo, most likely one of the gate keepers at State House wasted no time in calling the Standard News editor to give him a best selling headline so late in the evening.
Visiting the Head of State by any Kenyan has never been a crime even though it is a rare occurrence for most Kenyans in their life time. However, Kalonzo Musyoka is no ordinary Kenyan like you and I. He has been a cabinet minister in both the Moi and Kibaki regimes. He was one of the leading stalwarts of the Kanu regime that was bitten by the Raila bug of rebellion and dumped Kanu at its hour of need to form the Rainbow Alliance with Raila in preparation for the 2002 general elections.
When the Alliance sat at the negotiating table with the NAK coalition in October 2002, Musyoka was on the front row as one of the eight members of the Summit, the supreme organ of the National Rainbow Coalition- NARC.
The composition of the Summit itself was quite interesting. Even though the spirit, body and soul of the anti- Moi- anti-Kanu crusade belonged to Raila, when it came to the composition of the Summit, Kikuyus, Kambas and Luhyas were represented by two members each. Only Raila represented the Luos even though technically he doesn't come from Nyanza. He has been a Nairobi Member of Parliament since 1992. The Kalenjins too were represented by Kipruto Kirwa then perceived more as a Kibaki-Wamalwa side-kick than a political force to reckon with.
As recently as last year, Kalonzo was at it yet again, as one of the seven renegade coalition ministers that rebelled against Kibaki over the constitution review. They opposed the draft version that Kibaki's clique was determined to ram down the throats of Kenyans. As in October 2002, he joined Raila and others to oppose the referendum which culminated in the defeat of the draft to the chagrin of Kibaki and his supporters. And in retaliation, Kibaki soon reshuffled his cabinet that saw all the seven ODM ministers sent packing.
At many rallies during the referendum campaign in which Uhuru's KANU joined hands with Raila's LDP, it was publicly stated by the leading lights of the movement that included Kalonzo Musyoka that they would remain united and campaign as a team to effect regime change come the next elections.
It must be these public pronouncements that made Kenyans react with shock and dismay to the purported secret State House visit by Kalonzo Musyoka. It was worse when he was reported to have gone to State House to look for a cabinet job; any job Kibaki would throw at him!
Kalonzo Musyoka may have had good reasons for visiting the President, and I dare repeat that there is nothing absolutely wrong, criminal or sinful about it.
What may have bothered many Kenyans and Kalonzo's supporters was the timing of such a visit at a time when the Kibaki administration seemed to be under siege and was likely to cave in sooner rather than later.
Kenyans may have also recalled similar circumstances in 1992 when the government of the day went out of its way to deliberately sow seeds of discord in the opposition to scuttle its unity. In the end Matiba came from a London hospital to declare his candidature against the then Forum for the Restoration of Democracy leader, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga. Soon after Matiba declared his candidacy, Martin Shikuku, then a leading light in FORD went for a secret night meeting with Daniel Arap Moi at State House where it was rumoured he was served with ugali. After that ugali encounter, opposition politics was never the same again. Moi whipped them all at the polls a few months later.
Having said that, it may be prudent to find out why Kalonzo Musyoka would do such a thing if ever he did it at all. Kalonzo has enjoyed unparalleled media coverage of his campaigns country-wide since 2002. Many Kenyans have come to adore him. And they adored him simply because they saw in him a new breed of politicians that were breaking from their tribal cocoons to sell fresh political air to the rest of the country. This national approach to issues had made him create strong bonds with other leaders from Kisii, Luo Nyanza, Western Kenya, the Rift Valley, the Coast region, his own Eastern province and the Northern Frontier.
Why would he squander this hard-earned respect for a short- term political appointment? Does he feel too exposed to last the next 20 months without a ministerial flag? Is he feeling estranged from his ODM colleagues after several of them expressed their desire in the presidency? Is he feeling vulnerable should he be subjected to the scrutiny of undergoing an elective nomination process? Was he expecting Raila to declare him tosha the way Raila declared Kibaki in 2002? Does he know, deep down in his heart that if he faced Raila, Ruto, Uhuru, Balala and Mudavadi at the nomination he would not go past the goal post?
There must be something Kalonzo Musyoka knows that makes him uncomfortable that we Kenyans may never know.
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