There is a US Presidential candidate called Donald Trump. He panders to his support base by peddling the most obscene conspiracies. He is a bigot, sexist and chauvinist all at once. His main support base is uneducated white male Americans, a group that feels the United States belong to them and no one else.
A section of Mt. Kenya politicians ooze this Trumpian mentality.
At worst, they believe that they don’t need others. Or, that others don’t count in the larger scheme of things. This pathetic individualism is the root cause of all political skirmishes.
The story appearing on the Star Newspaper that a group of furious Mt. Kenya politicians had the audacity to walk to Deputy President William Ruto’s office and ‘warn’ him against ‘meddling’ in Nairobi affairs simply because DP Ruto endorsed Water Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa for Nairobi gubernatorial race has exposed the feckless house of cards that both Jubilee regime and Jubilee coalition is.
For starters, Mt. Kenya people believe Nairobi belong to them. They believe it is them to control it politically, economically and even socially. They can’t understand how Eugene Wamalwa, a third generation Sabaot from the slopes of Mt. Elgon can dare dream to be the political overlord of Nairobi.
In the last polls; all seats in parliament for Nairobi that were won under Jubilee Alliance were won on TNA party. In all these seats, except Kamukunji constituency MP Yusuf Hassan, the others are all Kikuyus. If Ferdinand Waititu would have defeated CORD candidate Dr. Evans Kidero, that would have been another seat by the selfish political elites of Mt. Kenya. Add to Women Rep Rachel Shebesh and the face of Nairobi would have been completely an ‘uthamaki affair’.
Contrast this with ODM/CORD where the seats were shared evenly to reflect the diversity of Nairobi as a multi-ethnic, diverse city. ODM/CORD even elected a ‘muhindi’. The party coalition elected Luos, Kikuyus, Luhyas, Kisiis and others.
Back to Mt. Kenya.
The brazen disrespect to DP Ruto whose only sin was to attempt to balance how Jubilee coalition reflects its respect for ethnic diversity in Kenya’s capital city has shocked everyone. Uthamaki is not interested in political unity. They speak about it but they don’t believe in it.
How did such an innocent suggestion by the man who is no. 2 in Jubilee hierarchy lead to such a backlash – including from Kikuyu Council of Elders? Isn’t this symptomatic of the political culture of the Kikuyu which led to the 2007/08 violence and created the perception that “1 vs 41” was fair game?
Here are a people who expects political support from other communities to cling to power; including in Uhuru’s 2017 candidature, but openly dismiss others.
Many Luhyas are now wondering if Eugene Wamalwa is an ‘outsider’ who should not dream of being governor of Nairobi; what makes Uhuru a presidential candidate worth voting for in Western Kenya, or by luhyas, or other Kenyans who are not from his ethnic sandbox?
The other point the Mt. Kenya politicians raised was that if DP Ruto continues in his meddling path; the Kikuyu community will return the favour in post-2017, when Ruto will need the community, not the other way round.
This is hogwash.
It makes the assumption that in post-2017; or post-2022, the Kikuyu community have no interest in participating in national politics. It makes it appear like after Uhuru; the Kikuyu community has had enough and satisfied to perpetuity.
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