International relations are underpinned by securing the ‘local’ interests of each country.
This has birthed the adage that ‘all politics is local’ when it comes to the nitty-gritty of electoral politics. It means a politician's success is directly tied to ability to understand and articulate the simple, mundane and everyday concerns issues of voters. Personal issues, rather than big intangible ideas, are what voters care most about.
Application of ‘all politics is local’ in electioneering where attention to “local needs” determine the viability of a presidential candidate isn’t the rule in Kenya. Ethnic numbers determine the decision to vie or not, often after ethnic calculations to know the strengths of one’s ethnic base votes. This makes the presidency a contest of ethnicities through ethnic mobilisation.
But the Mt Kenya Foundation has taken the contest of ethnicities in this year’s presidential election a notch higher. The conglomerate of post-independence Kenya billionaires from the Kikuyu community has unashamedly formalised the spectre of “ethnic interest” by publicly endorsing an aspirant they have struck a deal with to protect their wealth, if not promote further acquisition.
Where such deals were subterranean in the past, the foundation isn’t shy about “interviewing” candidates publicly and declaring their pick. Here, we’ve a franchise with unfettered influence over government it appears there is ‘state capture’, in fostering a “Manchurian Candidate” on Kenyans.
In The Manchurian Candidate novel (1959) by Richard Condon, the son — Sgt Raymond Shaw — of a prominent American political family is brainwashed into an unwitting assassin in a foreign conspiracy.
However, the film version is more appropriate to Kenya political scene. The assassin eliminates the US president to pave way for ascension of a communist puppet. The conspiracy depicts disloyalty, betrayal, deceit and corruption as the drivers of the plot.
Transposed over Kenya, the Mt Kenya Foundation has the likeness of the Soviet and Chinese collaborators. It’s not easy to place a symbolic Sgt Shaw. But there is no doubt Raila Odinga homes in as the puppet usurper: The Manchurian Candidate.
The overt intention of the foundation to foster on Kenya a Manchurian Candidate in Raila is daunting. It may be business as usual for them after decades operating behind the scenes. The fact that Mt Kenya region isn’t fielding a “protector” for president in this year’s election reinforces determination to own a Manchurian Candidate for State House, out of fear of the unknown.
In its scheme, the foundation is patronised by President Uhuru Kenyatta. Unlike the US case where the president is the assassination target but unaware of the secret insurgency, Uhuru is the instigator of the foundation’s imposition of a president on Kenyans to serve parochial interests. He assumes the role of Mrs Iselin in The Manchurian Candidate, to subvert Kenya’s fledgling democracy.
Mrs Iselin, Sgt Shaw’s mother, is the villain in the sinister political conspiracy. It’s she, as the “American operative” working hand-in-glove with Communist masterminds, who directs the mission intended to hand the reins of national power to her soviet puppet husband. She uses covert tools to undermine an American presidential election.
A subtle hint in the novel that Mrs. Iselin, as a girl, was in sexual thrall to her father; and a crucial moment in the story that hints of an incestuous liaison with her son, maybe a metaphor to the muddled Kenya’s incestuous succession politics.
Should President Kenyatta play Mrs Iselin to the end, the apprehension about who’ll actually hold the reins of power in a Raila presidency is real. Will there be forced transition within five years of Raila presidency so that an Uhuru-appointed deputy takes over in the fashion of Mrs Iselin’s conspiracy?
Uhuru remains the Jubilee party leader, strategically mopping-up political parties that join the Azimio alliance through Jubilee. Is Uhuru anticipating a post-election showdown with Raila? Or are pundits’ prediction that Raila is a caretaker for another Kenyatta reign, lazy suppositions?
In the American case, the puppet imposter succeeds in settling in the Oval Office chaperoned by Mrs Iselin. Is Jubilee deputy secretary general Joshua Kutuny’s a wild wish when he affirms that, “He (Uhuru) will play advisory role to the president (Raila). There will be very close consultations between them on matters of concern and direction of the government”?
In Kenya, the manipulation is on and state resources are handy for the formation of support satellite ethnic political parties and rented-crowd rallies are held to create the illusion of popularity. There is even manufactured opinion polls on the conspiracy menu. The regional outfits led by Uhuru’s confidants, including Cabinet secretaries, are part of the grand scheme to clandestinely manage his succession through Azimio la Umoja, Raila’s election vehicle.
The parties are the Democratic Action Party of Kenya, Party of National Unity, Kenya Union Party, Upya, United Progressive Alliance, Pamoja African Alliance and UDM.
The most heinous tactic is where reluctant establishment figures are intimidated to submit support and recalcitrant ones are set upon by pliant investigative agencies. Intractable ones have been bundled to court on nefarious charges. Many governors and MPs have fallen to intimidation by defecting from Kenya Kwanza Alliance parties to Azimio behemoth satellites. This way, ANC and Ford Kenya experienced haemorrhage meant to weaken them.
But the bizarre case is closure of Keroche Brewery in Naivasha. As long as the proprietor, Tabitha Karanja, was an ally of the Manchurian Candidate, the Kenya Revenue Authority gifted grace periods to clear tax arrears. But no sooner had Tabitha switched loyalty to Deputy President William Ruto than the taxman pounced.
Extraordinarily, KRA went overboard to caution banks against lending Keroche. This is just how insidious it gets; state institutions manicured to intimidate and punish resistance to the Manchurian plot.
All these manoeuvres by Uhuru deviously prompt a puppet Manchurian Candidate. But would a Manchurian twist be in the offing, with Uhuru playing the conniving Mrs Iselin, gathering an Armanda for control of Azimio, and which would decimate resistance, should it come to a showdown with a hapless Manchurian Raila in office?
Just like the seismic events that shook the American establishment following the discovery of the Manchurian, the Kenyan Manchurian plot portends grave danger to the stability of the country. Already, questions arise as to whether Kenya is reneging on its democratic trajectory.
The plot has also awakened simmering fissures in ethnic economic disparities with the foundation accused of displaying arrogance by purporting to install a president of their choice on Kenyans. For a billionaire franchise that promotes “Kikuyu business interest”, the insolence of mocking poor Kenyans that a Kenyan president isn’t elected but made by the financially mighty, is quite sobering.
When it pans out, history will record a president’s ability to uphold, protect, and defend the Constitution seriously impaired by the strong influence of ethnic billionaires.
Kibisu Kabatesi is the spokesman for Musalia Mudavadi, ANC party leader
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