The irony of the Kibaki leadership

By Mwaniki Munuhe

KENYA: He has had a colorful 10-year term presidency, he has revitalised the Kenyan economy, improved education sector, infrastructure and expanded the democratic space, but the irony of President Kibaki’s legacy rests in the fact that it has flown without the crucial base of a strong political party.

The country is celebrating a president of a highly political country, who has demonstrated tremendous performance in public service but without much regard to a ‘political party’.

Unlike the situation in other countries where the ruling party plays a crucial role in any election and is naturally a major contender, none of the political parties Kibaki has ever contended and won any presidential elections on, ever survived to be his party of choice in a subsequent election.

All the three parties — The Democratic Party thought it later merged with Narc, National Rainbow Coalition (Narc) and now The Party of National Unity (PNU) — that Kibaki ever ran on have shown a similar tendency of slowly becoming irrelevant in subsequent elections regardless of the President winning.

Party systems

However, those who have worked closely with Kibaki say he is a believer in political party systems but has not been lucky enough to work with people who are largely cooperative in the same political party or coalitions as it was the case in 2002 and 2007 elections.

In 2002 elections, Kibaki then DP presidential candidate agreed to work together with the then Ford-Kenya presidential candidate Kijana Wamalwa and her Social Democratic Party counterpart Charity Ngilu by way of forming a coalition and fronting one candidate.

The three formed the National Alliance party of Kenya (NAK) before joining hands with LDP, which brought together politicians who had fallen out with former President Moi after endorsing Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta.

The LDP bandwagon joined hands with NAK to form National Rainbow Coalition (Narc), which ultimately floored Kanu in the presidential polls with Kibaki assuming the Office of the President, which marked the last time he associated himself publicly with DP.

Although Kibaki won on Narc ticket in 2002 elections, he chose another political vehicle to defend his seat in 2007 elections, PNU, effectively dumping Narc.

Trouble in Narc

“The President believes very much in political parties as organs that bring order in governance.  The trouble we had in Narc was that Charity Ngilu consistently made it impossible for any meetings to take place because we wanted to transform Narc into a political party. But eventually we realised she had different intentions of taking Narc in a different direction, we decided to do something else. As you remember, she eventually opposed the President,” said Nominated MP George Nyamweya who was also the secretary general of DP.

In a candid conversation with The Standard on Sunday, Nyamweya said the similar problems as witnessed in managing Narc locked PNU leading to confusion as to whether the party should be retained.

“The same trouble we had with Narc again is what we went through in PNU. It was not an easy affair. We wanted to transform it into a strong political party after the President’s controversial victory in 2007, but some ambitious fellows wanted to take it to a different direction just like Narc,” said Nyamweya.

In managing the PNU, other quarters who played a crucial role in President Kibaki’s campaign in 2007 elections blame the department of political affairs in the Office of the President for allegedly failing to offer quality advice in the management of the president’s party.

This effectively means that even if the President was eligible to contest the presidency one more time, he would have been forced to pick yet another political vehicle to sell his candidacy.

In other countries including neighbouring Tanzania, the ruling party is normally one of the strongest contenders in any presidential elections.

Tanzania case

President Kikwete’s Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) in Tanzania has existed since independence and remains one of the strongest political parties in Tanzania to date.

In the US, the ruling party whether Democrats or Republicans have always been the main contenders on the presidential polls for decades now.

“I can tell you that the President did not kill the party, the party was rendered inefficient by the President’s own advisors. Instead of building the President’s party, they started forming other parties and PNU died somewhere along the way,” said Beatrice Elachi, who served as the head of women league in the Kibaki Tena campaigns and is currently the secretary general of the Alliance Party of Kenya.

“I have been with the President for a long time now,” said Nyamweya,” adding: “He is a believer in democracy and the political party systems. Even now he keeps telling us ‘you people should work together. We don’t want fellows with too many things’. Even all he has done during his presidency is contained in the original DP manifesto.”