Why was Mboya’s assassination so significant? Simply because the two
bullets that were fired that Saturday lunch time July 5th 1969 changed
the course of Kenya forever. Today we
are suffering the consequences of that new course that was clearly
charted out that day. Impunity won that day. Years later the rhetorical
questions were to be asked over and over again by those who own Kenya;
Mboya was killed and nothing happened, who is so and so? We survived the
Mboya assassination what crisis can we not survive?
Tribal
politics won that day. In killing Mboya the assassins killed
nationalism. To date we are yet to see another Kenyan attracting
national popularity in their own right enough to win a presidential poll
with votes from every corner of the republic. Every single prominent
politician now has their political base in their ancestral village and
those who don’t have imported their fellow tribesmates in large numbers
into the constituency they represent away from their village. Mboya's
political base was Eastlands Nairobi and the non-tribal culture that
rules the place today owes much of it's foundation to TJ, as his friends
called him. Tom Mboya was a Luo (Suba) who was time and again voted in
by mostly Kikuyus even when other prominent Kikuyus from very prominent
families stood against him. To a young Kenyan who understands Kenyan
politics today, this statement may sound like pure fiction.
Again Ben Gethi was deeply involved in that assassination that shook the world.
http://kumekucha.blogspot.com/2009/07/why-was-mboyas-assassination-so.html?m=0
The shadowy Alfred "Anglo Leasing" Gitonga pictured here in London with President Mwai Kibaki (is that a Tusker he is drinking?) shortly before the 2002 general elections that brought Kibaki to power. Gitonga who went to St Mary's with President Uhuru Kenyatta is believed to be a key member of the current president's kitchen cabinet.
The
very suggestion of Jomo Kenyatta being Prime Minister appalled the
knowledgeable Kenyan middle class and high society in 1960. After all a
court of law had confirmed his links to Mau mau, those terrorists who
thrived on chopping off the heads of innocent white settlers and natives
as well.
The very suggestion of Uhuru Kenyatta being
president appalled the knowledgeable Kenyan middle class and many others
in 2013. After all he was linked to serious human rights abuses and was
facing charges at the ICC.
For the very reasons that people
were terrified of a Jomo Kenyatta premiership KANU won the 1963
elections emphatically and formed the government.
For the very
reasons that some Kenyans were terrified of a Uhuru Kenyatta government,
JUBILEE won the 2013 elections getting majority seats in both the
senate and house of representatives and formed the government.
There are uncanny similarities between the situation in 1963 and 2013
(50 years apart). Little wonder that the good book says there is nothing
new under the sun. Still, there are a few rather huge differences.
About 2 weeks ago I predicted here that the ICC issue which had been
getting pretty boring was going to suddenly come alive and get very
interesting. That has now come to pass (na bado) but
what most Kenyans are not aware of is that there is a master plan for
the ICC where the Kenyan cases at the Hague court are going to be
attacked from all fronts. Those ICC cases MUST go away. They MUST!!!! Details of this master plan are jaw dropping to say the least and will involve considerable taxpayer's resources. Sorry folks security in the country has to take a back seat for now because this is way too important. Even if it was you would you ignore self-preservation to serve the people?? Think about it.
But what are the political
implications of the AU signatories to the Rome statute protesting the
work of the court in one voice (53 states out of 54) and even pulling
out enmasse from the ICC (if what they want done does not happen)? What
will it do to the authority of the court now desperately struggling for
credibility when many in Africa had seen as a light at the end of a long
dark tunnel of bad governance and impunity amongst African leaders? The
sad truth is that the political realities in the West have changed
dramatically amid unprecedented economic chaos and financial
uncertainties. They now need Africa more than ever before. Not to
mention the fact that East
Africa is suddenly oil rich with significant deposits of the precious
and very political resource having recently been found in Uganda and
Kenya.
Meanwhile a quite battle simmers deep inside the JUBILEE government where powerful sources are bent on clipping the wings of deputy president William Ruto. Those who believe that the president is strong enough to keep powerful forces watching his back at bay are naive. Indeed the composition of the president's inner cabinet which includes his mother and one Alfred Gitonga amongst others should enable anybody to make a fairly accurate prediction on what is going to inevitably come.
See also; Why has Mrs
Pauline Musyoka wife of former vice president Kalonzo Musyoka
always kept a low profile and done her best to keep a very safe distance
from the limelight that her husband’s political
career has attracted? The answer to that question is mighty interesting to say the least.
