“There comes a time when the nation is bigger than an individual person.” Prof George Saitoti made this bitter statement at Kasarani during a Kanu delegation. However, he made a big mistake by saying “there come a time.” The nation is bigger than any citizen, whether a commoner, Cabinet minister or even the President. Africans have a proverb that says one person cannot be a clan.
The same argument should be applicable to political parties. Saitoti’s lament was caused by a move in Kanu to replace him from his top political position. Times were in the making of the saying 'Kanu ina wenyewe (Kanu is owned by certain individuals)'.
The same can be said of other political parties. They are owned by individuals. In the absence of political ideology, individual personalities and personality cults take the day in Kenyan politics. Today, if Raila Odinga moves from ODM and joins any other party, even Kanu, his personality cult would steal the magic or the flesh of ODM to his new party and leave ODM a shell.
So would Kalonzo Musyoka and Wiper, Martha Karua and Narc, President Uhuru Kenyatta and TNA, now JAP, and so on. DP died when President Kibaki abandoned it. The parties lack ideological materials to continue giving them life after the owners have gone.
Kanu, hate or like it, appears to be the only party that has resisted becoming wholly owned by an individual or tribe, in spite of it being related strongly to former President Moi and with his son, Senator Gideon, who is party chairman. In fact Kanu is the mother of the bastard political parties that have plagued the country in the name of democracy. Many of those bastards have come and gone, some of them lasting only one political season.
There was a reason behind the births of the bastards. Kanu was deviating from its original nobility to become an instrument of oppression. When, how and why it was so is a subject of another discussion. In the process of the oppression, Kanu did just as much damage to itself as to individuals. It was stripped of its national respect until people began to say, as Martin Shikuku told President Jomo Kenyatta, “Kanu is dead.”
This, of course, earned him a terrible beating. He was transported for resurrection in the UK and thereafter detained for many years.
However, despite having been stripped of most of its feathers, the Kanu jogoo appears still to be kicking. Only that in the latest move, the party appears to be in danger of finally becoming the property of individuals and the Kalenjiin tribe.
But it can be saved from that destruction on behalf of the nation. This should start with the acceptance that Kanu is bigger than anybody. It is bigger than Kenyatta, Moi, Kibaki, Uhuru, Gideon, David Maillu, and so on. None of these people can kill Kanu. In fact, it is Kanu that can kill them.
During a recent meeting of officials in Baringo to revamp Kanu, some declared that Gideon should be its presidential candidate in 2017. That was a terrible national mistake. A sure way of driving the last nail on the coffin of Kanu. Why? Because, if Kanu is a national party, that announcement should be the business of the overall national governing body. For, if some Kalenjiins feel that Kanu is theirs to manage, how can the Kamba, Luo, Taita, Kikuyu, Somali, Maasai and Luhya see any sense in joining the party? Should they join the party to vote in another Kalenjiin for President?
Kanu should not be tribalised. It should be nationalised by addressing the heart of the nation. If the party has to resurrect at all, it should come up with a clear ideology and new reasons to tell the nation why anybody should join Kanu and be proud of it. The image of Kanu should give good reasons why Moses Wetang'ula, Raila, Kalonzo, Mohammed, Peter Kenneth and others must be attracted to it enough to abandon their parties and say: “I want to be a Kanu presidential candidate.”
Kanu should offer concrete inspiration to the youth. It should stop appearing as part of the problem and become part of the solution for concrete and noble development. Materially, Kanu should look progressive, not retrogressive. Since Kanu has been misused, messed up, walks in tattered clothes and smells of sweat, its glory should be restored ideologically. Period!
Kanu is the only credible party sitting on top of a gold mine of ideology. Africa has incredibly beautiful values that could give the party everything it needs to be the rock of the nation. Kanu is the only party bearing the unquestionable history of the struggle for independence. Kanu and Kenya almost became synonymous. The rains started beating the party when its officials failed to give it a strong ideological foundation.
In the March 4, 2013 general
election, I made an intentional move that earned me ridicule from many
people, including from my friends and family. That was
when I
declared my presidential candidacy on the Kanu ticket. “Maillu, are you
mad?” they asked me. “Can you afford to be so stupid in wasting away
your special brains on the dying Kanu? Do you think Kanu, which has
humiliated you so much in the past, is worth your sweat? Don’t you know
that Kanu belongs to Moi and his son Gideon?”
I knew too well what I was doing. I thought I had an intellectual duty to tell the nation: “There’s some life in Kanu, let’s take it to ICU.” It was a provocation because I saw incredible potential in the Independence party and, since I'm a committed lover of African values, I wanted to give the party a glamorous ideology I think itdeserves.
Well-known novelist David Maillu ran for President on the Kanu ticket in 2013. [email protected].