Even long before high school, the House of Mumbi was always a fascinating place and culture for me and, no doubt, for all Kenyans. Why wouldn’t it be? Our first president was from the community, and all his henchmen were household names.
Although the TikTok generation cannot relate to this, there was no television in the village where we grew up, so all we knew about these national figures was what we read in the newspapers or heard on the radio.
Kenyatta's speeches were particularly electrifying and always filled with fear and adoration, even on radio.
Yes, and the man knew how to lob some of the finest insults with perfect pitch and timing—but they were the kind that made one like the man more, not ashamed of him.
Fast-forward to now, or at least past Kenyatta’s time, and you find nothing but backward stupidity being passed off as insults.
It also explains what is happening in the community that was once associated with invincibility and prowess.
When former President Uhuru Kenyatta started hurling all manner of unprintable insults against former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, especially in the lead-up to the 2013 and 2017 elections, Uhuru set in motion what was subtle at the time but now obvious for all to see.
Without going into the weeds on this, suffice to say when Uhuru and his henchmen were done defining Raila in Mt Kenya, coupled with the storied oathing that took place during his father’s tenure, the damage was so done and deep such that his about turn and effort to help Raila succeed him were nothing but an exercise in futility.
Although Uhuru gets an A for trying, even he must have come to grips with the reality that the quest to gain and keep power at all costs is now becoming the undoing of the very community where this was never thought to be a possibility.
Had Uhuru recognised that Kenyans were not going to continue tolerating the rotation of power between two communities, he would have accepted the people’s verdict in 2017 and allowed for reconstitution of the IEBC, have clean, fresh elections and then be prepared to hand over power to Raila if the mood in the country remained the same and Raila won as he would have with a clean election.
That scenario would have placed Ruto in a position to fight it out with Kalonzo Musyoka in 2027, assuming Raila was reelected in 2022, which he undoubtedly would have. In 2027, Ruto would have likely been a walkover Kalonzo, much as he will be if that’s how things turn out, anyway.
That’s a mouthful, but you must get it; otherwise, you wouldn’t get the point of all of this; in sum, Uhuru did two things that have contributed significantly to where things stand politically in the country and aided in a third, and these are:
First, Uhuru damaged Raila in Mt Kenya, so Ruto only showed up to rip greatly the benefits after he had taken care of things in the rest of the country while Uhuru was not paying any attention.
Second, Uhuru so terribly underestimated Ruto and waged what in hindsight can only be described as a joke even though it was being played out then as some kind of mission to destroy Ruto.
Third, the clever politician Ruto has proven to be, especially his keenness on the country being of no mood to rotate power between two communities, Ruto is crafting a brilliant political strategy that brings him and Raila together just as they were in the lead-up to 2007, except this time the mission is to ensure (a) Ruto’s reelection and (b) a successor who is not someone from Mt Kenya.
It's a win-win for both men.
