UHURU’S 100 DAYS IN THE OFFICE: WHAT’S NOT CUTTING? By Geoffrey Omollo, I have the dubious privilege of sharing birth date with our president. It is not all that significant except for the fact that I intend to use it as a template for gauging the man’s leadership acumen or lack of. Otherwise, we all as different as earth and heaven; he is left handed, I am ambidextrous, he was born into privilege, I am as dirt poor as they come… Uhuru Kenyatta, by virtue of being born on 26th of October is a Scorpio - a strong one, so say the experts. Which isn’t saying much except for when you want to assess the character traits of the man. Of course, various psychometric platforms could be applied to gauge the man such as the old-time four-pronged measures of sanguine, choleric, melancholic and phlegmatic temperaments (made popular by the husband-wife team of Tim and Bevery LaHaye in their book ‘Why You Behave The Way You Do’). I’ll pass those simply because I am a daub hand at painting such ‘technical’ stuff; I’ll stick to my journeyman lane. There are certain fundamental things one need to know about Scorpios. They are dedicated and honest lovers fall in love with one and you will probably never have a cause to worry. They take their métiers very seriously and when they discover themselves as they should, success is a given. They are artistic and inventive in nature; most investigators, writers and artists are Scorpios. They don’t suffer fools gladly but can be very informal and unrestrained in their everyday engagements with others for they do not take life too seriously as it is. They tend to have anger problems which if not reined in can debilitate them tremendously. They are very forgiving and are hardly malicious but when provoked they will go through great length to get even; woe betide the fellow who would fall afoul of a Scorpio. They are retiring type and do not make friends easily but when they do they make friends for life. They tend to shun the spotlight but are very adept at handling it when they are thrust into the mainstream. And they have the memory of an elephant. These and more. I guess, you are now seeing where I am coming from. I am a Scorpio. I know. President Uhuru has evinced the above traits in more occasions than we can care to count. Witness these:- -To date Raila Odinga has never fathomed what hit him after losing the March 2013 elections. Uhuru both by design and sheer will purposed to have the election go his way. How he did it is not of primary concern here but suffice it to say that when a Scorpio sets his eyes on a target it is either done or done. -He referred to Kibaki’s cabal of old-fogeys as ‘mashetani’ at the height of the Amani chap imbroglio and off-handedly referred to the Supreme Court judges as ‘some six fellas’ which was not in disdain but in keeping with his wont to seeing things through the informal lenses of personal appraisal; he was in effect saying ‘it ain’t that serious folks!’ only it was, but you can always count on a Scorpio’s misplaced sense of occasion to explain this faux pas. -He once said that he has no problem with Luos in general but Raila in particular. People have always wondered why it so but they conveniently forget that Raila earned a permanent enemy after he engineered the walk-out from the proceedings of the infamous Kasarani II of 2002 where Uhuru was to be enthroned by Baba Moi. If I was somebody who has Raila’s ears today I would advise him not to push his luck where Uhuru is concerned. By the time Uhuru is done with him, he’ll probably have no legacy to speak of. Trust me, I know. -Uhuru is actually a very friendly guy. He has no scruples about mingling with folks from all walks of life and he is not given to maliciousness. The Standard newspaper reports of the intrigues of a cabal of individuals who wanted to diminish the stature of Ruto during the inauguration ceremony. Uhuru would have no part in it. I am tempted to say here that the attempt to humiliate Raila are not coming from the big white house on the hill; they are efforts of some old-hands like Kimemia who as usual imagine the presidency is a carte blanche for folks and kin from the nyumba inene to strut about like peacocks and ride rough-shod over others like mafi ya kuku, to quote our ‘black-hearted’ octogenarian friend from Othaya. He is on record as saying that he feels constrained by the ‘traps’ (not trappings) that denies him old time pleasures of old – hustling down to ma-homeys to have a drag at a spliff, maybe? There are countless other instances. But, Houston, we got problem! Two actually. One is called Uhuru and the other is called Ruto aka Hustler. Uhuru is not the president because he loves the position or has an agenda for it. Like I indicated before, when a Scorpio find himself as he should, he becomes a roaring success. Simply stated – Uhuru was not made to be a president. It is not his calling. The presidency became his destiny because he had to fend off the ICC. Remember, he was ready to hand it over to Mudavadi but somebody probably reminded him of Jaramogi Odinga’s mortal sin of 1963. Laana gani hii wataka kutuletea mwana wewe? And now that the seat has been thrust upon him he must prove the proverbial elephant who has never been weighed down by his own tusks. The few days he’s been into the position are giving the indications that even though the man is not completely out of his depth in matters of governance he has none of the adroitness of an accomplished political technocrat and neither has he evinced the prowess of a consummate politician in addressing the issues of statecraft. Take your pick from the following and tell me what difference has he made – devolution agenda, Police boss vs the oversight board, TSC vs Sossion, MPs vs Senator, Governors bristling ambitions etc etc. His has been the usual subdued official cant and humbug. You would think he could do better for a man who once called the lazy fellow from Othaya as being hands-off, eyes-off, legs-off and whatever else-off for his lackadaisical approach to matters of statecraft. The rolled-sleeves media briefings he’s been holding with Ruto are not offering any epiphany in the quest to demystify the presidency; rather they are merely offering DP Ruto the opportunity to enjoy the tenor of his sound-bites – you must agree with me, the man loves his voice, there is no doubt about that. Uhuru’s presidency can only portend one saddening fact – underachievement and its resultant disappointment. Do go through the Jubilee manifesto again and tell me if the heaven they promised is gonna come. To understand how clueless the fellow is look at how his team is agog at the prospect of floating the one billion euro bond. At the behest of the IMF/World Bank axis of financial skullduggery Kenya is being led like sheep to the slaughter to probabl mortgage its oil prospects by the two evil institutions. They have been on and about how Kenya is poised to fly the coop, economically speaking and our unimaginative journalist have swallowed the cant hook, line and sinker. IMF/World Bank 99.99% percent have always been wrong; that is how the Greek and the Portuguese found themselves in the financial doldrums they are in today. And team Jubilee under the steerage of Uhuru would rather prepare us for this certain slaughter. (NB: If you have time visit Jukwaa and read of how some pedantic fellow known as Jakaswanga figured this out) Kenyans, be afraid be very afraid we hardly have a president but a figurehead going through the motions and exposing us to the second problem of the troubled Jubilee coalition, one Mr. William Ruto. DP Ruto, wears his ambitions on his sleeves like a honorific badge from the Nobel prize committee. He is has not hidden his glee at overcoming the Agwambo juggernaut; taking over his office was not enough even his wife had to take over Ida’s office. One would be forgiven for thinking that vanquishing Raila Odinga was such a crucial public agenda that somebody has to loose sleep over eat engineering every effort to diminish the man. When you see Raila being harassed look no further than the former Shell and BP House. Pathetic if you asked me. Back in 2006, I was drafting the skeleton of the third manuscript of three book series seeking to explore a coming-to-birth theme in the emergence of my protagonist. Set in 2032, I was positing that that would be probably the year when a ‘Son of Nobody’ would ever rule this country. I had this momentary inspiration to a childish pretentious facility to prescience positing that Raila would never see the inside of the House on the Hill has its chief occupant. I don’t want to be branded as a prophet after the fact but we know how the story went. But I would like to make another prophecy here. WILLIAM RUTO WILL NEVER BECOME THE PRESIDENT OF THIS NATION. History does not favour his ilk. But, in the meantime we have to endure his sly Cheshire cat smiles and arriviste’s bristling at the tempting trappings of power (100 Million for a jet ride and another for house furnishing anyone?) as the coterie of our battle-hardened power brokers of the house of Mumbi ready him for the slaughter. It is instructive to note also that Uhuru does not love Ruto, he does not hate him either. He has just placed him on sufferance to deal with the passing dark cloud of the ICC. Back to Ruto’s ambitions, it should be noted that this YK92 myrmidon is the greatest threat to our constitutional liberties that we have bravely fought for. If he had his ways this man would be issuing road-side edicts day in day out and micro-managing the country like a personal fiefdom. Be afraid of this fellow and watch him out. Look at the way he is recommending appointments for his lackeys, look at the caliber of the fellows he is recommending (where did he dig out Kazungu from?) and he rail-roads through the parliament by the virtue of the watertight URP-TNA contract. Sheer madness! I don’t want to tire your lips folks but I pen off by saying this: prepare yourselves for the most lucklustre presidency of your lifetime. Thank God you are in for the ride. Psst: I have deviated from the standard means of gauging leaders, whatever they are. I am responsible for all the mistake in this piece. Hold me responsible but tell me why
Posted on: Tue, 16 Jul 2013 13:54:10 +0000
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