PART TWO: LIVING WITH THE CONSEQUENCES: WHY I VOTED FOR AZIMIO IN THE FOREGONE ELECTIONS
Ladies and Gentlemen; it is now official. The Fifth president of the Republic of Kenya is H.E. Dr. William Samoei Ruto. In a landmark ruling made on the 5th of September 2022, The Supreme Court of Kenya threw out a petition filed by Azimio la Umoja, Raila’s political outfit, challenging the legitimacy and constitutionality of Ruto’s victory in the polls. As Kenyans look to usher in the new government and head back to normalcy after a tumultuous period of elections, I shall look to hopefully deconstruct what Ruto’s victory means to me, someone who voted for the ‘opposition’. Furthermore, I hope to explain the rationale that guided me to make the decision to vote for Azimio. My goal is to juxtapose the situations that drive our political decisions as voters and consequently find a consensus for voters who had divergent views on the same.
The Kenyan Situation
Elections are a tempestuous period in Kenya, to say the least. Every five years, people put their jobs on hold and the economy grinds to a go-slow as the focus is directed to the elections. This year was no different. However, the elections could not have come at a worse time. The economy seemed to be backpedaling on the progress made in the post-COVID days with annual inflation hitting record levels of 7.9% in June. This coupled with food shortages due to delayed rains as well as the ongoing situation in Ukraine meant the prices of common commodities such as foodstuffs went beyond the roof. In addition, the government had been accruing massive debt over the years mostly to fund big infrastructural projects under President Uhuru’s administration and parliament had recently voted to raise the public debt ceiling to Ksh8.4 trillion. Things were not looking on up for Kenya and this was widely captured in the campaign trail of the Presidential candidates with each taking turns to blame someone, defending their involvement, or creating propaganda from the same.
Roots of the Rivalry
To better contextualize the rivalry, we need to head back to 2012; the advent of the first General Elections held under the guidelines of the new constitution promulgated in 2010. This particular period in time saw the formation of the UhuRuto Alliance, a political pact between Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto to vie for the Presidency. This ‘bromance’ between the two was however more of a unified fight against the International Criminal Court (ICC) which had brought several cases against them in the wake of the 2007-08 General Election. The two were said to be the major bigwigs in castigating and perpetrating the violence witnessed then which led to the death of 1,000 people and the displacement of 600,000 others. The 2007 Post-Election violence had driven a wedge between the Kikuyu community (where Kenyatta is from) and the rest of the major communities including the Luos, Kalenjins(Ruto’s community), and the Kambas. The prosecution by the ICC had the inadvertent effect of bringing something in common between the main ‘perpetrators’ of the skirmishes and allowed them to unify their communities, at least, towards a common goal. Therefore, the two coasted to an easy win in 2013 which was later reaffirmed in 2017 when the two were reelected under the Jubilee Party. The rest of the alienated communities ganged up behind Raila Odinga under the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) in 2013 and the National Super Alliance (NASA) in 2017.
The 2017 elections, however, threatened to bring forth chaos like they did in 2007. Firstly, they were marred by massive irregularities and electoral mismanagement and they were hence annulled by the Supreme Court following a petition filed by NASA which later boycotted their re-run. This led to Raila Odinga declaring himself the ‘Peoples’ President’ which only added fuel to the violence and chaos that threatened to tear the country apart. This drove Uhuru and Raila to the negotiating table leading to the so-called ‘Handshake’ in March 2018. The goal of the same was to create inclusivity and a means to end the violence and ‘Build Bridges’, especially between the Kikuyus and the Luos. This move was meant to bring Luos as well as the rest of the sidelined communities to the power-sharing table. The two communities especially had never made peace since 2007 as the Kikuyus had only made peace with the Kalenjins in 2013.
However, the so-called ‘Building Bridges Initiative’ was the beginning of the fallout between Uhuru and Ruto. Ruto felt sidelined and betrayed by Uhuru who had promised to back his bid in the 2022 elections as he had backed his in 2013 and 2017. In Ruto’s eyes, Raila’s deal with Uhuru was a ploy to force his hand to back his own ascent to Presidency in 2022. Uhuru had to choose either to deliver Ruto’s promise or to commit to supporting Raila’s own bid. He chose the latter.
Ladies and gentlemen, this marked the beginning of Ruto’s long journey to becoming President. He first began by breaking apart Jubilee, arguably Kenya’s biggest political outfit since the days of NARC and KANU, leaving it for the dead and carrying along Uhuru’s closest allies from the Mt. Kenya region with him. It was this movement along with Ruto’s own allies that constitutes the core of the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party. Ruto was joined later by the likes of Musalia Mudavadi and Moses Wetangula among others to form the Kenya Kwanza Alliance in which, to be honest, UDA is the big dog. Uhuru was left to pick up the pieces of the remaining Jubilee Party and amalgamate that with Raila’s Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) as well as other parties in minority communities to form the Azimio la Umoja Coalition. The two also managed to bring much of the Kamba community onboard with Kalonzo Musyoka and Charity Ngilu joining the bandwagon later.
Betrayal and reunion are nothing new in Kenyan politics. Since the days of independence, betrayal has been at the heart of major political proceedings in Kenya. From the days of Jomo Kenyatta and Jaramogi Oginga in the post-colonial days to the relationship between a much younger Raila Odinga and then President Moi. Raila was put under house arrest following his apparent involvement in the 1982 coup by President Moi only for them to join forces much later in 1997 through Raila’s National Development Party (NDP) and Moi’s own KANU. Ruto and Uhuru have also had quite a rollercoaster relationship from their days as KANU’s young lieutenants in the 1990s to Ruto supporting Uhuru’s bid in 2002 to their falling apart in 2007 through to both being on opposing sides of the Kenyan Referendum held back in 2010. Therefore, this falling out should come as no surprise to anyone. It is but a nature of the political sphere in Kenya.
Why then, vote for Azimio?
Before I delve into my reasoning for why I chose to vote for the Azimio camp, I would like to state, for the record, that these are just my opinions on my voting decision. Since the elections are over and done with, I feel that it is the right political atmosphere for me to share them and of course, I do not expect that I share the same opinions with everyone.
Firstly, I like what Azimio stands for; A national political movement for all. It is a multi-tribal conglomerate of political parties from all over the country; an intentional effort to bring unity from all over the country. The ‘Handshake’ and the peace it brought was a show of political maturity from both Uhuru and Raila as none wanted to go down the path of the 2007 Post Election Violence. Furthermore, as an ethnic Kikuyu myself, teaming up with people from marginalized communities was a breath of fresh air from the toxic tribal politics that have characterized national politics in Kenya for the longest time. Parties with a minority stake in the coalition have a greater say in the works of Azimio, something which the party bigwigs learned the hard way after their attempts to zone out candidates vying on lesser parties in the coalition’s backyards backfired on them. Parties such as the Democratic Alliance Party (DAP-K), an affiliate of Azimio scored big wins even in the backyard of the bigger parties such as ODM and Jubilee.
Kenya Kwanza felt like a reactionary movement to the aforementioned ‘Uhuru’s Betrayal’ to Ruto and his allies. The raison d’etre for the emergence of the alliance was in itself action in personam to Uhuru and even Ruto’s running mate and co-principal Rigathi Gachagua is on record as saying that he has a bone to pick with Uhuru. The chicken and egg situation arises when one contemplates what came first, the agenda for the alliance’s formation of the coming into being of the same. This is coupled with the fact that it is not the strongest coalition since the UDA party seemingly calls all the shots. Parties such as Tujibebe Party led by William Kabogo left the foundation beforehand citing UDA’s overhanded nature in running the proceedings in the alliance.
Furthermore, I am a massive critic of the movement dubbed the ‘Hustlers’. The word itself is a loose term that is thrown around to describe any person who has had a painstaking rise to the top, a sort of ‘rags to riches’ story. Ruto is a self-christened hustler who has worked himself to the bone to get where he is, from being a lowly chicken seller in Sugoi, deep into Kenya’s hinterland to becoming the political maestro that he is today. His story definitely resonates with a lot of everyday Kenyans working hard every day to make ends meet, make life better for themselves, and free themselves from the shackles of poverty. Ruto’s campaign was modeled on waging war against the ‘deep-state’ who he blames for state capture and a chokehold on Kenya’s resources. The Kenyan modern-day ‘Trust Fund Babies’, according to Ruto are the enemy of the ‘mwananchi’ with a chokehold on Kenya’s resources. By structuring his campaign in such a manner, Ruto took aim at the bigwigs of Azimio, the children of the establishment whose fathers Kenyatta and Oginga took advantage to capture state resources. This trend was only perpetrated further in their offspring; Uhuru and Raila.
However, allow me to deconstruct the ideology. Does Ruto truly relate to the ‘mwananchi’? He is definitely not a pauper by any means. He may not come from a dynasty but he is definitely the first in the creation of his own dynasty. Ruto may claim to be Kenya’s ‘Robinhood’ but he is taking from the rich only to make himself richer. If the political undertones are anything to go by, the innuendo surrounding Ruto is that he possibly acquires his wealth through unscrupulous means something which has made him, for example, among the biggest landowners in Kenya along with the very dynasties he claims to fight. Politics is about choosing the lesser evil nevertheless. Nonetheless, Ruto’s movement shook the ‘deep state’ to its core and caused them to come down off their high seats and humble themselves in seeking the support of the ‘mwananchi’. His victory is an affirmation of the fact Kenyans are tired of the country remaining in the control of a few and a breath of fresh air in all-inclusive administration is badly needed. Whether his presidency will deliver the same still remains to be seen.
Finally, after reading Azimio’s manifesto, I felt that their long-term economic and political plans for Azimio were slightly more feasible and sensible. Both manifestos were largely similar for both but Azimio was more detailed on how they intended to go ahead with the implementation of the same. For instance, on the issue of urban planning, their manifesto was clear and intent on building amenities as well as transport facilities with pedestrian and cycling lanes on roads, for example. Both manifestos speak of extrajudicial killings but Azimio expounds on how to set up an office to investigate and deal with the same. Nonetheless, this battle was not about manifestos but about popularity and who stood out among the masses more. Furthermore, it is not that Kenya Kwanza does not promise to do all of these things as well. In fact, it is quite possible that the Kenya Kwanza government might do an even better job than what Azimio promised to do. It is only that these issues were better encapsulated in Azimio’s manifesto.
Ruto’s Political Masterclass
It would be downright criminal for me if I didn’t acknowledge Ruto’s political masterclass. Every political move he did seemed premeditated and preconceived. He is a great tactician and politician who made the most of his sideling (victim mentality) and transformed this rhetoric to suit his ‘hustler’ narrative. Ruto presents himself as a humble, inclusive, and approachable leader something which especially appealed to the younger population from all communities. Being cognizant of the fact that Kenya is a largely Christian nation, he aligned himself with the church identifying as a Christian, first and foremost, and giving generously to the church. His wife, a staunch Christian also helped purport this image into something which definitely garnered him a mass following from the Christian community.
Ruto managed to outfox the so-called ‘state machinery’. Not even the deep-reaching ‘system’ could outmaneuver him since they clearly underestimated him from the get-go. Azimio underestimated him and was ill-prepared to eventually face him at the polls and they never thought that they’d lose to him. To add insult to injury, the Supreme Court petition was nothing but ‘hot air’, a poorly presented and defended case. If the case was presented any better on any other day it may have carried the day. As a Kenyan who believed and trusted in the Azimio manifesto, I felt disheartened and disappointed. The promise was great but the letdown was greater.
All in all, I choose to believe in and trust Dr. Ruto and the incoming administration to deliver on their promises. His first task would be to unify the country since of the 22 million registered voters, only 7 million voted for him. Another 7 million voted for his opponent and 8 million didn’t vote at all. Should he ‘build bridges’ and reincarnate the ghosts of 2017? Let’s wait and see how he maneuvers the same. Ruto’s ability to take up the ‘hustler’ narrative something which is relatable to most if not all Kenyans, and turn it into a political tool for appealing to the masses is a testament to the rise of Populism in politics. Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ reads from a similar handbook. Ruto’s ascent to the Presidency gives us a great lesson on democracy; it rewards those with are most convincing and popular regardless of whether they are deserving or not.
I must also, nonetheless, acknowledge Kenya’s political maturity as we have learned to embrace and tolerate each other regardless of tribe or political affiliation. We welcome Ruto’s administration and we hope for the best even as he works his best to dig us out We truly have come a long way but there is still quite a long way left. Ruto’s story is one to stir hope for all, especially young people who feel let down and shortchanged, and it should be a stark reminder that nothing is impossible. Even when the odds seem stacked against you.
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