Is Uhuru a general without an army, and can he regroup?

A man stands in a courtroom charged with biting another man’s finger during a fight. A prosecution witness takes to the stand. The defence lawyer asks him, “Did you see my client biting off the man’s finger?”

“No,” the witness replies.

“Aha!” the lawyer responds. “Then how could you be sure he bit off the man’s finger?”

“Well,” the witness replies. “I saw him spit it out.”

The case is closed, with a guilty verdict.

For a long time now, there has been speculation that President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto are not singing from the same political hymn book. One is preoccupied with an elusive legacy project, while the other is pursuing what he believes is an inevitability, ascending to be president in 2022.

The obvious tell-tale sign that the once-upon-a-time bosom buddies were pulling apart has been the dirty war of words generously displayed every weekend between MPs allied to either the Tangatanga brigade, affiliated with the DP, or their opposing force, Kieleweke, endearing itself to the President.

Like the lawyer in the story above, many still doubted the veracity of the rift between President Kenyatta and Dr Ruto. This was despite the President’s coded messages against early campaigns, seen as hints meant for the DP and those he moves around the country with, seeking votes covertly and overtly.

However, from last Sunday’s events, the whole country can now step into the witness box and testify that the rift is real. During a religious event at the Moi International Sports Centre Kasarani, Kenyans saw an admittedly agitated President Kenyatta spitting out the metaphoric bitten finger, daring anyone and everyone that he had had enough of their early campaigns and that they shouldn’t consider him some lame-duck fellow.

HORSE BOLTED

“Let them not think they can derail me,” he said. “They will know the son of Jomo is still President.”

Speaking in Gikuyu, the President was addressing members of the predominantly Gikuyu Akorino church, whom he kept referring to as ‘my people’, his message targeted at the larger Central Kenya community.

What didn’t escape anyone’s eyes was that Dr Ruto was present at the function, meaning the President was also sending a direct message to him. From the President’s body language, and from watching the DP’s subdued demeanour as someone kept whispering translations to him, the message was clear. The son of Jomo was no longer handling anyone with baby gloves.

“Let them not think they can scare me,” the President said. “I will flush them out from wherever they are.”

Following these developments, pundits were falling over themselves painting the President as the victor and the DP a vanquished victim. However, according to the doctrine of unintended consequences, the President’s diatribe similarly exposed weakness from his end, an admission that upon failing to persuade Tangatangaists to quit aiding the DP’s early campaigns, he now has to resort to brute force.

As if to show the President that the Ruto 2022 presidential campaign horse bolted long time ago, MPs started firing salvos back at Mr Kenyatta. There are those who called the President out for disrespecting them, since he declared in Kasarani that they owed their seats to him, and not the other way round.

POLITICAL ARMY

Others demanded that such communication shouldn’t come from the President’s off-the-cuff remarks, but await forums such as a Parliamentary Group meeting, of which the Jubilee Party has been hesitant to convene.

By and large, in Kenya’s ethnically mobilised politics, the President seemed to be calling his troops to order, admitting that they’ve been playing to the tune of another general, Dr Ruto. With their rebuttals coming in fast and furious, the conclusion to be drawn is that the MPs are daring the President.

Therefore the head of State could be staring at a possible mud fight, being forced into campaign mode when he has no business doing so during his final term. Only time will tell where this game of who-blinks-first between the Tangatanga MPs, the Deputy President and their early campaigns on one hand and the President, the handshake brigade and their referendum on the other hand will lead to.

In the interim, President Kenyatta should beware that it is now public knowledge that he is a man leading an incomplete political army, and that his threats to the deserters, just as those against the corrupt within his government, will continue going unheeded.

As Wole Soyinka famous opined while countering Negritude, the Francophone Black aesthetic movement, “A tiger doesn’t proclaim its tigritude. It pounces.” The President’s eternal undoing has been his wallowing in proclamations, never pouncing.

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