“RUTO CAN BE A GREAT LEADER…BUT”

Charles Lwanga Orioki Aberi at Radio Amani Offices

About a week or two before the Holy Week – the week that precedes Easter – I received a call from a man who claimed to have a very special message for Eldoret North Member of Parliament (M.P.) William Ruto. 

 

It was just a random call, one of the many that I receive while hosting Taswira: Mambo Yalivyo, the morning show at Radio Amani, Nakuru. At first I didn’t quite understand why such a call had to be directed to me. I mean I have never in the past behaved in a manner likely to suggest that I have a close working relationship with Ruto. I have for instance never hosted him or anyone close to him. Not that I haven’t tried inviting him before. No. It’s only that my efforts have not borne any fruits. I have tried getting in touch with his team, tried calling him and sent him a text, but all has been in vain. 

So when this particular guy I am to tell you about insisted I get hold of Ruto for him I got surprised. I mean I would have understood had he insisted I get, for instance, Raphael Tuju for him since I have had live interviews with him at least twice and know how to get him when I want his comment on a particular issue. Or Martha Karua – I have also hosted her; or Stephen Ooko the one who claims to be the G7 flag bearer for I have also hosted him; or even Gatanga M.P. Peter Kenneth, he is one man who will get back to you even if you are a strange caller, plus, he is very active on facebook and twitter.

Anyway I guess it’s just the sheer belief about our being ‘connected’ as journalists that made this fellow conclude I can be of help. Still I neither looked for Ruto immediately nor took any other step on his behalf. I wanted to see if he would ‘nag’ me the more on the same…and sure enough he did. 

He called me the next morning “to remind you bwana Kioko about that issue.” (Sometime I laugh at the way people insist on calling me Bwana Kioko on air). He has since been calling and this morning (10^th April, 2012) he simply read my mind. “Bwana Kioko,” he called, “I am reminding you about that issue, just inform me even if you have published it on the internet” (sic). 

Who told him, I asked myself after he hang up, that I was to blog what he had shared with me about the fact that “Ruto can be a great leader but he has to tread with caution.” I mean it’s the easiest way of taking his story to the next level. 

Well maybe it’s because, as he alleges, he is a ‘dreamer’ literary like the biblical Joseph of the seven fat bulls and the seven thin bulls’ story whose interpretation was given as seven years of harvest and seven years of hunger. Yes Joseph of the days of King Pharaoh.

Perhaps I should tell you this is the main reason I spared a minute or two for him, that which takes the biblical angle is always sweet to listen to. You can frown or grin on that as I am doing right now. 

I wanted to invite him to our studio for a live show but two things: the context of the talk and its impact to my radio audience plus he stammers in his speech. Please get me clear, I have no bad feeling for people who stammer, only I feel having a live show with them would be to give them a high toll. You will ask me, how come he calls you. I say I don’t know how he manages, but when I talked to him one-on-one I didn’t have the confidence of taking him live-on-air.

His identity as a radio caller is “Baba Bena.” He resides in Kaptembwo, a village in the outskirts of Nakuru town known for all the good and bad things but more specifically as one of the hot spots in the Rift Valley during post election violence (P.E.V). Among the stories I have covered on P.E.V two were from Kaptembwa. They were on forced circumcision and rape. Should I tell you about them? Mmmhhh…may be in another post.

Baba Bena is a 39 year old father of two and his real name is Charles Lwanga Orioko Aberi. Formerly a Jesuit Seminarian, Aberi is now a businessman. He sells mtumba – second hand clothes – in Kaptembwo. Previously though, he has worked as volunteer with Jesuits and Comboni Missionaries in Nairobi. Let us also not forget to say he is a dreamer even if no one pays him for that. 

So what does he dream about and what exactly is his allegedly revelation about one William Ruto? We start with 2007 P.E.V.

2007 P.E.V: He says he saw bulls in a field ‘beating’ (sic) and or chasing Raila Odinga and Mwai Kibaki in different directions. The bulls left a trail of blood. He says he shared this dream with his wife. 

Note that for the visions to stop he says he has to share their content – if that’s how we call the stuff we see in dreams – with someone. It pays more however if he shares with the concerned, the specific individuals a particular dream targets. I guess Raila and Kibaki were out of his mind as tangible targets. 

He speaks with a lot of conviction that this is the best of his dreams that proves he has a prophetic eye. “On the day the presidential results were being tallied I woke and when I saw the small margin between Kibaki and Raila I told my wife there will be a problem.”

Well, was there a problem after the last general election? You can fill in the blanks for yourself. 

Prof. George Saitoti in Defending his seat as Kajiado North M.P. in 2007: Prof George Saitoti is M.P. for Kajiado North and Minister for Internal Security. He is surely one of our seasoned politicians having served as Daniel Moi’s vice president for more than a decade. Now the Mathematics professor is running for presidency on a Party of National Unity (P.N.U) ticket. 

Aberi says of him, “I saw him almost slip off into a ditch…diving towards the bottom of the valley…then towards the midst his cars turned and started going upwards.”

I didn’t ask him where the cars came from. For sure you won’t be surprised that someone of Saitoti’s stature goes down a valley in an entourage of several cars. It’s upon you to fill the blanks on whether Saitoti had it smooth to parliament or if it was a tough battle for him. Has he tried reaching Saitoti, (especially before the voting) I think he said so, but he has not succeeded to date.

Musikari Kombo: Musikari Kombo is a nominated M.P. A former cabinet minister Kombo lost his Webuye constituency seat to Alfred Sambu in 2007 general election. 

One wonders, “Was it prudent for Kibaki to give him a nominated seat to appease the Luhya electorate?” Mmmmh…serves as an entry point to another debate, another day.

Aberi says, “I saw two cups, one was big and the other was small. Kombo was given the small one while Sambu got the big one. Kombo started pointing to the one that was big. He got very dissatisfied. I would later see him on T.V use the same sign he used in my dream, i.e. brushing off everything from the point of his face.” 

Now do you still remember how Kombo behaved when he lost his seat? Fill in the blanks. He said he managed to share this vision with either directly or indirectly with Kombo.

Raphael Tuju: Tuju is the former M.P. for Rarieda constituency. He is famed for his development record. Well, at least you have heard about the Rarieda Mobile toilets of his time if not everything. 

Never mind in 2007 voters seemed to have a special dislike for all those who had a development record. Can you imagine even the guy who introduced the much acclaimed Constituency Development Fund (C.D.F) was sent home packing. He is the former M.P. for Ol Kalau, one Kariuki Murue. Even Koigi wa Wamwere who had also been in the top list of clean C.D.F spenders was also denied a chance by Subukia Constituency voters. All this you know better was about whose drum beats and tunes you were dancing to, politically.

Now, I may not be sure about Murue but I am sure about Wamwere and Tuju. While the former (my former employer for that matter) felt he could sell Kibaki’s P.N.U while selling his own Chama Cha Mwananchi (C.C.M), or what some people made fun of as Chama Cha Masikini (party for the poor), the latter simply and squarely refused to “sack up to Raila.” Tuju lost to one Nicholas Gumbo in 2007 and one may still say he is still acting the devil’s advocate in Nyanza, as far as Railamania/Railaphobia is concerned in the Nyanza region.

Says Aberi, “I saw him arguing with Raila, I saw some men in white robs who told him that if he wants to remain in the open field he should shake hands with Raila. He didn’t listen. So he left…and lost.” 

You need not any explanation on this at this point. I am writing about a prophecy, remember?

William Ruto:  William Ruto is the man Aberi wants to meet like yesterday. He kept on telling me he is not doing so to get any fame or money. He only wants to get peace of mind. Not before he shares his dream with Ruto will the dream go away. (Emphasis is mine…but this is how I read the urgent need in his eyes). 

Ruto needs no introduction, really. You know this hustler whose name found its appearance in the International Criminal Court list in a ‘movie-like manner’. I also don’t know how that happened and why now him, and Uhuru Kenyatta, Francis Muthaura and Joshua Sang. I don’t know. 

What I know is it might be a little bit tricky for the KAMATUSA to convince I.C.C to delay the case before it until we conduct our elections. One would describe what they are rallying themselves to do as one of those scenarios that Chinua Achebe aptly describes as being “pregnant and nursing a baby at the same time.” Still, I wish them luck and my prayers.

I met Ruto once in a ‘close up shot’. He was doing rounds in Nakuru and its neighborhood and we (journalists) trailed him the whole day. We went to Eldama Ravine, Mogotio, all the way up to a place called Poror. He was in the company of among other people then Minister for Higher Education and M.P. for Mogotio Prof. Hellen Sambili. Those days Ruto and his clique of M.P’s were in United Democratic Movement (U.D.M). As it is U.D.M is represented by Sambili in parliament to date. How Ruto and friends were toppling her in recognition for the party I don’t know but it was evident they were getting more focus than our learned professor. 

Of course that was partly the reason I had opted to follow them, so as to get a chance to read the behind-the-TV- political scenes between the lines. So in the evening we had a meeting with Ruto at one of the hotels in Nakuru town “to evaluate the day”, as he said. 

It occurred to me that Ruto is a very…I repeat…very humble politician. Plus the guy is very smart. He explains policies, and gets you facts about food security which our nation direly needs from his fingertips. He has experience from the Agriculture Ministry which he held before things started tumbling down for him, in a way politically. In short Ruto is a very convincing politician at a personal level, ceteris paribus. 

Now should I still remind you he is eyeing the presidency?

Aberi dreams of him, “I have seen him surrounded by seven planes on either side. He is in a transparent plane himself, so you can see him. That makes fifteen the total number of his plane entourage.  These planes are very high and flying at very high speed. I see him becoming a very great leader.”

Aberi says he has had this vision at least four times. He then goes on giving prescription for Ruto’s political dose if he envies the prophesized greatness. “He should not talk about Raila, Uhuru, O.D.M or P.N.U. Every time he talks about someone the planes get lost. If only he can keep quiet when in the public domain, or talk positively about other people. He should not take sides; he should have facts to back what he is saying, then keep quiet. He should be someone ready to reconcile. 

He adds, “If he does so even the I.C.C may pardon him (sic). But if he doesn’t then he goes nowhere. As long as he keeps hitting at Raila he goes nowhere.”

I ask him, “Do you also see Raila, Tuju and Uhuru anywhere?”

He answers.

Raila: “I have not seen Raila’s dream. I saw him last time weeping,” (insisting) “and he cried.”

Tuju: “Tuju is not appearing anywhere for now.”

Uhuru: “I see him just getting angry every time he wants to talk. He just wants to fight all the time.”

He is not yet through until he concludes “If I could get a chance to have Raila and Ruto face-to-face and at once tribal hatred will be gone forever.”

“Why do you say so?”

 “Whatever Ruto says he has a chance to change the face of Kenya…so much.”

…and there you have it. The alleged prophecy of Charles Lwanga Orioko Aberi, the former seminarian turned business man, turned dreamer. For your information his wife too also has dreams…prophetically.

A MAN OF THE PEOPLE NARRATES A FAILURE OF LEADERSHIP

Chinua Achebe begins his pocket-manifesto-like book The Trouble with Nigeria by talking about what he feels is the root cause of all the problems in Nigeria:

The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership. There is nothing basically wrong with the Nigerian character. There is nothing wrong with the Nigerian land or climate or water or air or anything else. The Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the responsibility, to the challenge of personal example which is the hallmark of true leadership.

The above statement can be used to read through A Man of the People not only in seeing who (and how) participates in failing the leadership institution, but in analyzing the aftermath of such a failure. Thus, although the story starts as a simple mundane visit to the Anata Grammar School by the local Member of Parliament (M.P.) it develops into a triangle, a kind of love wrangle of its own, between him and one of his former female students. 

This is the initial stage at which the loopholes of leadership the text aims at start being exposed. They are developed slowly as the nation is finally led to a coup (led because the events of the revolution are necessitated by the events of the time) and the story finally reaches its climax as the people kind of turn back not to ask that resounding question by Achebe, “when did the rain start beating us?”, but to reflect on their mistakes. As you can see asking the ‘when did the rain start beating us’ question at this point is not of importance since they are fully aware of when the torrential rains started, to the extent, they had better just sit and plan how to dry themselves. 

Like Anthills of the Savannah, A Man of the People can be seen as an Achebe’s commentary on the burning issues of his society. It's basis as a fictional text only makes sense when conceived from the point of view of its fictional characters, otherwise the setting is factual. 

It is this feature perhaps that critics have picked on in placing the text as among postcolonial texts. Simon Gikandi in Reading Chinua Achebe for instance sees it as concerned with the ‘Realities of the new Nation’ which is better interpreted as post-colonial:

…the problems that were going to accompany the country as it tried to seek the norms and values which would define its nationhood and as it sought what Fanon calls ‘the seething pot’ out of which the learning of the future will emerge.

As seen above the nation is termed new, or better still as a young nation, for it has just been conceived after independence transferring leadership from the colonialists to post independence African leaders who not long ago may or may not have been part of the independence struggle.

On the other hand the problems are wide and the challenge is not their discovery but the discovery of the ‘norms and values' to fix them. But one can confidently say the major issue or setback in the new nation is the weakness of nationalism. This is what, as we have seen in Achebe’s earlier comment, the root of the absence of true leadership. 

One Odili laments about the controversial issues surrounding the death of Max and Koko, the former having been avenged by his girlfriend Eunice, in the analogy of the village with a mind and the nation without any, and it is surely here where we know Achebe is talking about the ‘pitfalls of nationalism’:

The owner was the village, and the village had a (cosmic) mind; it could say no to sacrilege. But in the affairs of the nation there was no owner, the laws of the village became powerless.

Odili is first alluding to an earlier case where a shopkeeper, one Josiah, was chased away from the village after he cheated a blind man and took away his walking stick for he (Josiah) believed it could make him richer. 

Odili’s comments on this incident are not very different from Frantz Fanon’s on commitment to nationhood in the new nations:

The faults that we find in it are quite sufficient explanation of the facility with which when dealing with young and independent nations, the nation is passed over for the race and the tribe is preferred to the state.

And more specifically the problem is worsened by the state’s lack of mind and in essence lack of voice to demand for its rights.

In a nutshell, A Man of the People exposes the intrigues of grand corruption, dirty politics, degraded morality, the tussle between old regimes and young-turks or to put it differently the generational friction as well as political immorality which fans the sycophancy of the masses so as to maintain the status quo.

As a writer Achebe feels deeply concerned in participating in shaping the destiny of his nation. One actually sees how he moves from the narration of the events during the initial encounter of Africans with their colonial masters to the relationship among Africans themselves in the absence of the rulers. It is however important to notice that the rulers are not completely out of the equation as they still dictate affairs of the new nation from their capitals. 

Gikandi says the question has changed with the new role of the post colonial writer:

…what is the function of the writer in the new nation and is there a fundamental relationship between nation and nation…? The primary function of the post-colonial writer was the liberation of his country, the prison house of colonialism, especially as it was embodied in the colonial mentality.

Well, the role of the narrator in A Man of the People may not be too much emphasized as in Anthills of the Savannah. The two books however end on a low tone after some key characters in the story have been killed and the remnants are reflecting on their future – a way forward - becoming those who shall tell the story to the coming generations.

A Man of the People calls us to go deep in our reflection of the features of post-colonial Africa. It calls us to think critically of the leadership we have presently and whether that leadership is steering the ship in the right direction. There could be hope for the change for instance in the personalities such as that of Eunice who can avenge a fallen hero without asking to be paid, but the challenge lies in rallying enough people behind her for a similar cause, if not in killing ‘physically’ the likes of Koko, then in killing the rot in them.

Why Bett is a Good Bet

It is one thing to have dreams. It is totally a different thing to have them fulfilled. While dreaming only costs a nap, that is if we all agree to dream you must sleep first, it takes time if not money to fulfill some dreams. Actually some dreams are as costly as one’s life. 

That last challenge has however not denied men the opportunity to have dreams. Indeed, we know great personalities who have overcome unfathomable odds to stardom by cracking the core of their dreams. Their list is long and it pays less to mention them.

Then we have on the other side men who do nothing but day-dreaming. Such men are good at announcing their plans to escapade and beat the records of all known adventurers in the world. Yet come the day of departure they give excuses and will never travel. Such characters are said to have existed in the Akamba land and they must be the reason why our fore fathers invented the clan of the ones who say “I will do.” 

In kikamba they are called mbaa ngeeka, where mbaa is kikamba for clan and ngeeka is to say “I will do.” So among the Akamba there is a saying that goes mbaa ngeeka meethiiwe mataneka (the clan of those who say I will do, were found to have done nothing). 

This saying has been used to deride all those who pretend to have big dreams but make noise about it, at least at its least opportune moment.

Perhaps you have seen such lots many a places. Perhaps you have heard about them. Or perhaps you have attempted to advice them in vain for they never listen.

But perhaps you never realized they invest very little or nothing in their dreams. In essence then when they fail to fulfill their said dreams they will have lost very little or nothing at all. That is the main character trait of mbaa ngeeka.

At this juncture I am convinced if we want to look for mbaa ngeeka the best place to start with is among our politicians. Of course I admit it is important for a man to be optimistic. I also believe though mere optimism is the fateful seed that either fell on hard rock or on the soil that could not hold it to full growth and fruition. 

In the recent times – I wish to make this discovery for you – I have seen one man among our legislators who aptly fits the description of a mbaa ngeeka. That man is one Hon. Franklin Bett, Minister for Roads. Eeeh…which constituency did you say he represents in parliament?

Bett was reported in one of our dailies last week to have said he is ready to be anyone’s… read that again… anyone’s running mate in the forth coming general elections. Now that is equal to having a dream but having no idea at all of how to accomplish it.

By announcing he is waiting anyone to name him a running, since he is ripe for the task, he posits himself like a lad who just feels he is ready for marriage but isn’t sure the qualities he is looking for in the woman of his dreams. 

Politically that announcement ought to carry serious implications which can be misinterpreted and misrepresented at his peril.

First, Bett is an O.D.M fellow and one of the people in Kelenjin strong hold who have been active in keeping aflame Raila Odinga’s dream in the Rift Valley. By this announcement, is he saying he will ditch O.D.M and run to whoever will name him a running mate? Well, he doesn’t expect Odinga to name him a running mate, does he? Taking this argument further you realize his presence in O.D.M is to last up to the day he finds a suitor for the political marriage he anticipates.

With that you and I can surely bet he is as good as useless in as far as the progress of O.D.M is concerned.

Secondly, with that announcement he makes a declaration to the effect that he subscribes to no political ideology. I mean, if you put yourself in a position where you can be picked by anyone and go, it means you don’t mind what the ‘whoever’ comes for you subscribes to, ideologically. 

Again with that you and I can bet he is politically worthless. He makes no value in the business of voter brokerage. 

Worse still, you and I can make this bet, that he is one of the best case studies of our modern-day politician. I wish not to describe this modern day politician in the scathing manner the graffiti makers of Nairobi have done in the recent times, but one thing I know is this, his ideals have not been based on deep rooted personal belief and commitment to a special way of life that one looks at and exclaims “waooh, that’s how life ought to go.”

With that simple argument I present Bett as a good bet on the characteristics of the modern-day Kenyan politician. 

Finally, here is some advice for him: let him leave O.D.M so he can have more space for suitors. Still, I will not be surprised, though, if throughout the remaining electoral period no one makes advances to him… some traits are characteristic of the mbaa ngeeka.