At the height of the handshake between President Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga, Deputy President William Ruto got so pissed off that out of wits he coined the dynasty-hustler narrative.
In reactionary fashion, he saw the handshake as a direct assault on his 2022 presidential bid. He explained how this alliance was hatched to ensure the continued dominance of the dynasties. In explaining the domination of the political dynasties, he singled out his nemesis pair of Gideon Moi and Raila.
Ruto used the paternal heritage of the duo to point their ubiquity in national leadership. Daniel Moi was a long serving vice president and longest serving present of Kenya.
Raila’s father, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, was the first vice president under founding President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta. Ruto chose to present himself as the champion of the underdog. He fashioned himself as self-made and from rags to riches personification.
The DP sought to rally the underprivileged in society to rise and stake their claim to national leadership. Using inciting language, he deftly weaved the hustler narrative to be the main plank of his campaign message.
He deliberately moved to be with those he considered downtrodden. For their pitiful state, the Deputy President chose to blame his government. He cleverly designed a message strategy that separated him from the government and its associated failures. He allowed his hatred for Raila to cloud his judgment regarding their joint political efforts with Uhuru. Their partnership with Uhuru had ran for long and had brought political dividends for both. In the logical exposition of the hustler narrative, it was impossible for Ruto to exclude the Kenyatta family and especially Uhuru. He had to eventually paint his buddy and boss as a beneficiary of dynasty political framework.
At one of the national prayer breakfast events, the Deputy President graphically illustrated the difference between his upbringing and that of Uhuru. He used their respective initial access to a pair of shoes at childhood to show how humble his parents were. He fell short of claiming that his partner was up there courtesy of being born with a silver spoon in the mouth.
The hustler nation had to rise up and stop the eternal domination by the three families through their offspring. The three families together with their acolytes were presented as being solely responsible for the squalid living conditions of the youths and the poor. A class dichotomy was established between the haves and the have nots. Similar approaches to political campaigns have always turned nasty, if successful. The President was pushed to a corner in his own house by his close partner. Uhuru was stunned.
DP Ruto is brilliant, eloquent and energetic. He mounted a whirlwind tour of the country to market his newly minted manifesto. Within a span of six months, the hustler movement was receiving converts in their droves. The wheelbarrow became a symbol of revolution and new beginning. To help whip further emotions, his hatchet men claimed that insiders within government had planned to assassinate him at a meeting ostensibly held at La’Mada Hotel along Thika Road. At the same time President Kenyatta was struggling to gain control of his government by purging out pro-Ruto MPs from parliamentary and executive positions. Tension was palpable across the country.
Ruto’s pointmen became more emboldened in their attacks against the Jubilee government, Uhuru and family, and Raila together with his BBI crusade. Ruto then intellectualized his movement into an economic platform dubbed bottom up economic model. With the assistance of Kenya’s renown economists led by David Ndii, the Deputy President presented to the electorate a strategy that would place wealth in the hands of the proletariat as opposed to big business and the aristocrats.
Compared to the Robert Mugabe’s approach in Zimbabwe and Julius Malema’s in South Africa, the proposal was exciting and appealing to the largely unemployed and poor youth.
The poor population must have seen an opportunity to be rich through the redistribution of the wealth apparently concentrated in hands of the few rich. It was a harbinger of economic chaos and violent takeovers of businesses.
Scenes reminiscent of South African blacks violently evicting foreigners from their businesses came to mind. The clarion “Kazi ni Kazi” implanted in the minds of the hustler followers a sense of inferiority complex.
The leaders sold to them the agenda that the other political and business leaders of the dynasty class held them in utter contempt. That they could only improve with one of their own at the helm. In a subtle but direct conjecture, they were urged to overthrow the status quo.
The hustler dialogue firmly became a class struggle pitting the poor against the rich; those without long leadership history versus the scions of those who fought for independence. Unfortunately for the pushers of the bottom pp economic policy, the narrative concurrently assumed a tribal dimension.
The Kalenjin community leaders presented to their kinsmen an agenda of betrayal. They saw in the handshake attempts by Uhuru and his handlers to have backpedaled on his 2013 coalition agreement with Ruto, which was made to appear as a pact between the Kalenjins and the Kikuyus.
The Kalenjin leaders including Senator Kipchumba Murkomen of Elgeyo Marakwet cried foul claiming that it was their turn to receive support for the presidential bid through Ruto.
The Kikuyu leaders in the hustler movement also pushed the fear gospel of hell should they not support Ruto. The scenario was scary. On the one hand, there was the looming threat of the Kalenjin versus the Kikuyu political antagonism.
On the other hand, there was the threat of another forced unholy alliance of the Kalenjin-Kikuyu communities against the rest.
The courts in yet another landmark ruling switched off the BBI reggae music. Uhuru and Raila suffered a serious blow to their [ostensibly] political unity and electoral justice quest.
However, the ruling also deflated the hustler movement unity of purpose against the government strategy to unite the opposition leaders against Ruto. Without the BBI, the ground dramatically shifted.
Then in his characteristic mien of rising like the phoenix, Raila launched the Azimio la Umoja movement. While the hustler movement divided the nation neatly into two, Raila’s was a call to national unity. It sought to assure everyone that all Kenyans belonged to the country equally and deserved to be treated with respect.
The ODM chief posited that the existing social inequalities are a function and result of the nation’s collective historical circumstances and can only be corrected through strategic engagement of all stakeholders.
He has argued that the youth need decent work with dignity not just any other available job. He posits that “Kazi si kazi lakini iwe kazi ya maana na ungwana.”
His appeal has received rare support from key leaders around Uhuru and the business community. The promoters of Azimio la Umoja aver that dichotomizing the nation into class and ethnic cleavages is a sure recipe for political chaos and economic instability.
With the dwindling fortunes of One Kenya Alliance, Raila’s Azimio la Umoja remains the only credible national alternative to the hustler movement train. The opposition leader has within a short period been able to visit all the regions of the country.
The launch in Nakuru was significant being the heart of the Rift Valley Region. Ruto has since found himself in a fightback position. He is now reduced once again to playing catchup game and reactionary. This is a tricky area having been the pace and agenda setter just recently.
His communication strategists have to burn the midnight oil to demonstrate how the hustler movement is more unitary than Azimio la Umoja. His economic advisers have to show how the bottom ip model is not divisive and does not involve forceful and violent takeover of existing businesses.
DP’s political propagandists will have to convince communities outside of the Kalenjin and Kikuyu that they also matter in the hustler nation. These are daunting and uphill efforts for any strategist. But again, nothing is impossible.
