Kenya’s politics of crude betrayal

There are many infamous, or famous, betrayers in history. In my books, however, none are more notorious than Judas Iscariot and Dennis Brutus, both from the Age of Antiquity.

But of the two, I think Judas takes the cup because he betrayed the “Son of God.” I mean, if you are going to be a traitor, please don’t do it to Jesus. Geez – what was he thinking!

That’s why it was very poignant when Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta, Kenya’s former CEO, publicly accused some unnamed public officials of being turncoats, quislings, deserters, and traitors.

In his telling, the backstabbers plunged a knife in his back at his hour of need. Cowards. Backsliders. Renegades. Heretics. Defectors. Please feel free to choose your epithet.

For Christians, there’s no more damned traitor than Judas. To boot, he betrayed Jesus to the Romans, the occupying colonial imperialists. That’s why Mr Kenyatta’s use of Judas Iscariot as a metaphor must have deeply unsettled the assembled “betrayers.”

I know Jubilee Vice Chairman David Murathe attempted to clarify by name the folks at whom Mr Kenyatta directed his outburst. I saw Mr Murathe’s rider more as damage control than a real correction.

After all, Mr Kenyatta has said nothing publicly after that, and we can’t tell whether Mr Murathe had been directed by Mr Kenyatta to set the record straight.

Be that as it may, it was a moment of great levity because of the solemn and celebratory occasion.

That Mr Kenyatta chose a televised event of a Catholic ordination of bishops to attack his betrayers spoke volumes about his seething anger.

Mr Kenyatta even went native speaking often in Gikuyu to a national audience, many of whom could have been forgiven for thinking he had reverted to Latin, the obsolete language Catholics used in the past to minister to Africans.

I watched his demeanor and saw a man full of rage, contempt, and disdain for his erstwhile compadres. He menacingly looked directly at them and said they would end up like Judas, hanging themselves from a tree without the benefit of the 30 pieces of silver. Damn. I was stunned and flabbergasted. The holy event became unholy.

I could only surmise Mr Kenyatta’s pique came from the betrayal he suffered at the hands of his inner circle during the 2022 elections. Mr Kenyatta and then DP William Ruto didn’t see eye to eye. That’s why he backed Azimio’s Raila Odinga.

In a rarity for Africa, an incumbent leader was beaten by his deputy after a very rancorous falling out. In my view, it’s moot how Mr Ruto beat us in Azimio la Umoja. The fact is he beat us. That’s what rankles Mr Kenyatta. With the entire machinery of the state – even with or without shenanigans – Mr Ruto was victorious. Even if votes were stolen, why couldn’t the state machinery, which Mr Kenyatta commanded, not prevent the theft?

Then there was the “hot air” Supreme Court with the seven characters. Setting aside the judgement read by Chief Justice Martha Koome with calumny and contempt for Azimio, one must wonder why the gods turned against us. I think Mr Kenyatta takes the blame for the loss. But in so doing, he now seeks to shift the responsibility to the officers around him in the Executive and those in the Judiciary. That’s why he stared them in the face as they sat in front at the ordination.

At some point I thought he was addressing livestock in one of his ranches. He pierced them with utter disdain in his eyes. His body language couldn’t have been more contemptuous.

Mr Kenyatta’s experience if indeed he was betrayed by his appointees – folks whose careers he had made – then its par for the course in Kenyan politics. Kenyans like to use the language of betrayal to describe the unprincipled nature of our politics. But I think that misses the point. Show me a single important politician who hasn’t betrayed someone, or been betrayed, and I will call you naïve.

In a country where ideology or philosophy aren’t the benchmark for politics, personal interest and individual aggrandisement rule the day. In Kenya, it’s not what one believes in, but rather what a particular association will bring you as an individual. So, the word betrayal is a misnomer. It’s meaningless in Kenya.

What’s my point? In America, or Britain, for example, parties are driven by ideology and deeply held visions of society. A Democrat will not flip over and become a Republican just to fill his belly and vice versa. Sadly, that’s the case in Kenya. That’s because if you aren’t affiliated with the state, which controls the large public sector and which often chooses winners and losers in the private sector, you are a dead person walking. Not so in America or Britain.

To end the “betrayals” Mr Kenyatta was lamenting, we must re-engineer our politics away from the full-belly thesis and towards principle, ideology, and belief away from the egoist, the glutton, the crook.

- Makau Mutua is SUNY Distinguished Professor and Margaret W. Wong Professor at Buffalo Law School, The State University of New York. @makaumutua.