What Kibaki Is About To Do To Ease Grand Regency Pressure

Muta-do?

The Anglo Leasing scandal which happened during President Kibaki’s first term and where Kenyans lost billions of shillings is now long forgotten.

But what should interest Kenyans more is what was done to cool off things then because history is about to repeat itself on hapless Kenyans.

Those who know the president are well aware of the fact that he is very slow to make decisions. This has both advantages and disadvantages as any good manager will tell you. One of the huge disadvantages is that in our fast-paced world of today delayed decisions can be disastrous. But I digress. What I wanted to say was that at the height of Anglo Leasing, there was pressure for days which turned into weeks and finally the Finance Minister then Daudi Mwiraria resigned over the still unsolved scandal. This was followed by the resignation of the then energy minister Kiraitu Murungi (whose voice was clearly heard in one of the Githongo tapes asking the ethics PS to go slow on Anglo leasing culprits). Note that the two ministers were not sacked. They resigned.

It was not lost on close observers that both ministers had sworn never to resign (just like Amos Kimunya has done. In fact he has said that those calling for his resignation should themselves resign). But after a brief meeting with the appointing authority they emerged with a different mind set. The president hates to fire anybody and that is a serious management weakness.

The resignation of a cabinet minister was unprecedented in the history of Kenya at the time and therefore the public was very excited and happy. The end result of this was that information released later on the Anglo Leasing scam was mostly ignored. Kenyans never got to the bottom of Anglo Leasing and Mwai Kibaki survived to fight another day.

We all know what happened next. The two gentlemen sneaked back into cabinet after being given a clean bill of health by the anti corruption jokers led by one Aaron Ringera.

Now folks, watch carefully. The same thing is about to happen. This is almost a certainty and the only thing nagging the president’s close advisors now is whom to replace Kimunya with. Yep, shifty-eyes-blind-side-winger Amos Kimunya is going to be used as a sacrificial lamb.

But what must really be nagging Kibaki insiders is the fact that there is the annoying possibility that the ODM arm of the coalition government will push for one of their own to take over at Treasury which will in fact be a very smart move because it will appease ODM supporters who will no longer be interested in getting to the bottom of this Grand Regency saga. PNU chaps will then just fall into line. Or divert attention by making noise about the appointment. Perfect. Just perfect. There are too many possibilities in the star-studded ODM camp for the Finance portfolio starting with Prof Anyang Nyong’o.

The other advantage of appointing from ODM is that it may just cause this 6 month marriage to be finally consummated. Very strange marriage this coalition thing, imagine there has been no sex happening! What kind of marriage is that?

And so Mwai Kibaki will survive yet again.

Muta-do?

P.S. I am certain of one thing. Mwai Kibaki has lots of regrets over decisions that he made last year in the run up to the ill-fated presidential elections (including the current Grand Regency thing and many other issues that will emerge in due time. But if you want to know them early you can read my latest raw notes).

I am sure he has fantasies all the time about the comfortable slow life in retirement that he would have been enjoying at Othaya now while Raila Odinga would have been sweating it out by now and seeing his popularity dip from some very high and impossible expectations Kenyans had. Problems like the current oil price crisis and rising food prices would have ensured a very rocky beginning indeed for the ODM government. The people would have been saying that Kibaki’s rule was better. I can almost see some MPs making noise in parliament about President Odinga and saying that he does not know any economics like Mwai Kibaki did.

But alas last year Mr Kibaki did not want to go down in history as the first one-term president ever in Africa, nothing else mattered. Now he has to pay the price.

Life is really fascinating ain’t it?

Breaking News at 6:22 PM

Parliament has just unanimously passed the motion of censure against Finance Minister Amos Kimunya. A sweating Kimunya at one point even had to invoke his wife and daughter in an emotional defense that lacked substance. The drama continues to unfold. The big question is will kenyans get the answers or will the resignation of Kimunya close the chapter?