President Uhuru Kenyatta occupies two extreme ends of the partisan succession contest. One side considers the fourth president divisive. The other team views him as a unifying influence.
For the UDA presidential candidate, William Ruto, the President is divisive. Ruto is bitter President Kenyatta did not find anyone, including himself, among the 7,000,000 people who voted for them, good enough to occupy State House.
The DP finds the President's choice of ODM leader Raila Odinga as his successor, a betrayal of the UhuRuto base of 2013 and 2017. The dominant tribes in that base are the Kikuyu and the Kalenjin. The excluded others are 43 ethnicities.
The DP has hawked the betrayal gospel among the Kikuyu and the Kalenjin from 2018, when Raila and Uhuru signed an amity pact. The two believed Kenya needed a handshake to ease 2017 post-election tensions. However, Ruto blames the amity for his exclusion from the centre, even as he continues to enjoy the perks of power as 'elected deputy president’.
He is cutting his nose to spite his face. The Kikuyu and the Kalenjin were the major actors during the 2007 post-election violence. The Kikuyu were the main victims of a conflict in which the Kalenjin were the aggressors. About 1,000 Kikuyus in the Rift Valley were either killed or displaced.
The Kikuyu and the Kalenjin were enjoined in a handshake between Uhuru and Ruto in 2012. The two-tribe accord produced a president and a deputy president in 2013. The two communities have also produced four male presidents and three of 11 all-male vice-presidents since 1963.
The two-community power relay is divisive. Ruto and his UDA allies prefer continuity. Uhuru wants a Kenya where leaders from the other 43 communities stand a chance of being president.
For Azimio la Umoja, President Kenyatta is what patriots ordered for a country that craves a unifying force. The script of the Uhuru presidency reads differently, during this polarising succession general election.
The sour relation between the President and the Deputy President is a metaphor for the struggle for national reconciliation. As the sun sets on their Jubilee era, Uhuru and Ruto, who occupied the presidency for a decade, are sitting on different sides of the Kenyan story.
The shared plight that bonded them in 2012 was bound to break. The bond broke irretrievably. The two were charged with crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court following the 2007-2008 post-election violence. The Hague-based court dismissed Uhuru's case, while Ruto's was deferred for lack of evidence — at the time.
Uhuru and Ruto occupy two different worlds of power and wealth. Ruto entered the corridors of privilege as an adult. He was born in deprivation. This may have scarred him psychologically. The 'elected’ DP can do anything to delete his past. Slapping the president was an option when Uhuru contemplated quitting after the Supreme Court nullified the 2017 presidential election.
"If they had slapped me over power, I would have given them the other cheek to slap. Yes, I wanted to go back to Ichaweri because I could not compare power with bloodshed," Uhuru told an assembly of faiths at State House, early this month.
Uhuru, from Kiambu's Ichaweri village, was born in the corridors of power and wealth. He is comfortable in or out of power, provided the political environment is right for Kenyans. The Uhuru succession may reset Kenya.
Uhuru is at the centre of this historic moment: two iconic politicians — Raila Odinga and his running mate, Martha Karua, — are sitting on the crest of history. A politician from outside the Kalenjin and Kikuyu communities has a reasonable chance of becoming the fifth president.
And, a woman stands a high chance of being the Deputy President. Uhuru stands on the right side of that history.
