Gideon Moi, the hapless prince?

I’ve nothing but good wishes for Kanu chief Gideon Moi. So, this column shouldn’t be construed as an attack on the man the late President Daniel Moi called the “apple of my eye”. Unlike President Moi, most parents are loath to publicly reveal their favourite child. I assume he did so to signify that Gideon was his preferred successor in politics and matters of his vast estate.

Whereas Senator Moi seems to have moved seamlessly to the helm of the Moi business empire, his political chops appear to be less than stellar. Even so, Senator Moi has soldiered on undeterred by his lacklustre persona. After all, his infamous father ruled Kenya for 24 years without an ounce of charisma. 

Kenya’s politics is maddeningly ethnic. Senator Moi would’ve emerged as the Kalenjin kingpin had he not been saddled with the misfortune of having UDA’s William Ruto in his backyard. Mr Ruto has blocked Senator Moi from emerging as the Kalenjin kingpin.

First, Mr Ruto supplanted the late President in the region’s politics. Then, like a predator, he trained his hawkish eye on the younger Moi. Unfortunately for the dictator’s scion, he didn’t have the political skill to put Mr Ruto away. What must be eating at Senator Moi is that Mr Ruto was a political pupil of his father. But as we know, parents can forage for food for their children, but they can’t chew and swallow for them.

Deep State

Nor is it clear to me that even if Senator Moi had climbed to the pinnacle of Kalenjin politics he would’ve been a serious candidate for President of the Republic of Kenya. It’s true in Kenya that no one has made himself President – yet. No one makes himself President. Rather, one is made President. Don’t ask him who, or what, makes one President.

Lately, we’ve heard it’s the so-called Deep State. Others say, tongue-in-cheek, like Senior Counsel Ahmednasir Abdullahi, that it’s the electorate that decides who becomes President. I would have been shocked if he held a different view because he defended the 2017 election which the Supreme Court tossed. Even the 2002 Narc wave was an ethnic constellation.

In the pecking order of Kenyan politics, Senator Moi isn’t anywhere near the top. I am pretty sure he can’t even see the top of the mountain. Kanu died a long time ago. ODM’s Raila Odinga killed it in 2002. What’s left is a carcass that’s as dead as a doorknob. It boggles my mind why Senator Moi would cling on to a political skunk. Perhaps that in itself is evidence he’s nothing without his father’s coattails and political legacy. Even Jubilee’s Uhuru Kenyatta knew that to go anywhere in politics he had to ditch Kanu, his father’s party. So did Mr Ruto who left Kanu for URP even though it was the former that gave him political wings. 

Political burden

Methinks the Kenyattas would have loved to “return” the Mois’ hand. That is to say, pass the presidential baton to Senator Moi. That’s because Mr Kenyatta, in all likelihood, would not have ascended to the top without the late President Moi, who picked him from obscurity and foisted him atop the Kenyan political landscape.

But Mr Kenyatta, unlike Senator Moi, has charisma and is a skilled and charming politician. I don’t see how Senator Moi can be endeared to the populace unless the seat was simply hereditary. I admit that I may yet be proven wrong because as Christians say, the Lord works in mysterious ways. We could one day wake up and find Senator Moi in State House. 

In William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, there’s a pithy statement: “Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them.” I don’t know if any one of these applies to Senator Moi. If so, I don’t see it. Instead, what I see is a hapless prince who doesn’t have his heart in politics, but who carries his father’s political burden. I think Kenyans – at least those who have presidential ambitions for Senator Moi – need to free him from that cruel burden. I think that his talents lie elsewhere, perhaps in business. Sometimes we can choke the life out of people by projecting our ambitions on them. It’s unfair, unhealthy and terrible.

The folks in the One Kenya Alliance – Wiper’s Kalonzo Musyoka, Amani’s Musalia Mudavadi and Ford Kenya’s Moses Wetang’ula – have corralled Senator Moi into the amorphous group. It’s clear to all and sundry that Senator Moi’s heart is not in it. It’s clear the other three OKA principals think that Senator Moi and Kanu add a positive dimension to their schema. I am not sure about that at all. Senator Moi’s political purchase is minimal. Beyond his name, what does he add to the political calculus since Mr Ruto has completely cleaned his clock? No one should try to force a square peg into a round hole. It’s never worked. 

Makau Mutua is SUNY Distinguished Professor and Margaret W. Wong Professor at Buffalo Law School. He’s chair of KHRC. @makaumutua.