It is possible the two Kikuyu rivals from Gatundu in Kiambu, Uhuru Kenyatta and Moses Kuria, had giraffe necks which enabled them to see far when both refused to bow down into pressures to relinquish their political parties when great pressures were exerted on them by William Ruto during the campaigns for the August 9, 2022 elections.
During the campaigns, William Ruto had on several Occasions declared in his speeches, that the Jubilee political party was dead. At the same time, he urged Moses Kuria to do away with his political party, Chama cha Kazi. Both Uhuru Kenyatta and Moses Kuria refused to yield to the pressures. Every Kikuyu should commend the two for their foresight despite their political differences. They must have seen far away ahead.
For decades before the introduction of the multiparty system of politics into Kenya, Kenyans suffered from the one political party dictatorial regime. Selections of those to vie for different positions was done by the top-class individual Kenyans in the only one political party in the nation. Kenyans with divergent views about governance were not allowed to vie for any political positions. Others in the party who raised their voices against atrocities committed, were expelled from the party and at times arrested.
The recent happenings within the UDA and within the Ruto administration, have a lot of similarities as they are indicative of some kind of isolation strategy. The methods adopted by many leaders with mindset of humiliating, oppressing and dealing with certain individuals or with certain communities, have always been voice deprivation and isolation. This has always been done in many ways. It has been done by creating fear through unnecessary arrests and torture, by taking away the rights of association and assembly, and by rendering some people or a community, party less.
Certain activities going on in the UDA and in the Ruto administration, are in semblance of a scenario where if not for Moses Kuria and Uhuru Kenyatta, the Kikuyu community would in very near future, find itself in an uncertain situation, if not in a very dangerous situation, in which no one would be able to raise a voice against any intimidation or oppression of any kind.
DP Rigathi Gachagua who by virtue of his position would be relied upon by the Kikuyu community, has been rendered a stooge in the Ruto administration. He is only ordered to release statements which later hurt him badly. He has been deprived areas through which he would exercise his powers as the DP. Gachagua who is the Deputy President in Kenya, should be the deputy chairman of the ruling party UDA. But he has no place in the UDA party today. The only conduit of accessibility to the UDA party which which appeared available to him, was recently deprived off him, when Vernica Maina, former Secretary of UDA, had her position taken away and given to Malala. That was done to make sure that Gachagua who recently proved restless when his Kikuyu community was intimidated, will not wield any powers at all of helping his community whatever happens.
Musalia Mudavadis’ elevation to the position of overseeing the performance of all government Ministries, a position that was held by successive vice presidents in the history of governance in Kenya since independence, means a lot to the position of DP. Together with the duties allocated to Malala, Rigathi Gachagua has been rendered helpless and useless, and he is only left to act like an activist in order to be heard.
This sets the Kikuyu community at a very awkward quagmire, and unless those in the knowhow think about how there can be a voice just in case the worst befalls the community, its future and the future of its generation may be doomed.
Despite the differences between Uhuru Kenyatta and Rigathi Gachagua and despite the differences between Uhuru Kenyatta and Moses Kuria, the three should reason and forgive one another, then come together and sit on one table to decide how the welfare of the Kikuyu community should be championed, the same way leaders from other communities like Mudavadi and Wetangula, like Raila and Orengo and other communities, have had joint efforts of championing the welfare of their communities.
Dr. Isaac Newton Kinity
Counselor and Human Rights Activist
Former Secretary General
Kenya Civil Servants Union.
Connecticut, USA.
