The wit and humour shaping Kiambaa mini-poll campaigns 

This week, my book vendor called in to deliver what he endorsed as a “must-read book for political scientists”. It is a copy of The Wit and Humour of Political Science (2010), co-edited by the late Prof  Lee Sigelman, which collects the wittiest and funniest pieces about political science and political scientists.

Humour has always been hailed as the weapon of unarmed people. It has, however, not been political science’s strongest suit. Long ago, political scientists lamented that “The trouble with political jokes is they usually get elected”.

And Africa is replete with political jokes, and more than its fair share of them in offices! But my book vendor, an avid reader of this column, had made his point – humour can be a defence against getting into trouble.

As a public intellectual who often finds himself in the trenches and war-rooms of political campaigns, I need the art of eating the prickly cactus fruit of the African Savana without the pain of its horrible needles.

With NMG Public Editor Peter Mwaura on the prowl, wielding the ‘conflict-of-interest’ arrow (DN, May 28, 2021), obviously the sharpest in his quiver, I have to take to heart the wise counsel of Chinua Achebe’s “Eneke the bird” who says in Things Fall Apart that: “Since men have learned to shoot without missing, I have learned to fly without perching.” I too have to let my comments on local politics “fly without perching”.

I am not a crystal ball reader, but wit and humour in the campaigns for the July 15 Kiambaa by-election will determine the winners and losers in what is unfolding as the ruling Jubilee Party’s do-or-die by-election. In this showdown of titans, rival parties are humouring up voters to attract support and – hopefully – votes.

For the Jubilee Party, Rome is under attack! The Kiambaa by-election is a waterloo for the party in Mt Kenya politics and President Kenyatta’s legacy. The party’s humiliating defeat in the recently concluded by-election in Juja – in the President’s Kiambu home county – was a wake-up call to Jubilee honchos. In Kiambaa, they cannot continue to dither as Rome burns. Five tropes capture the high-stakes contest in Kiambaa. 

One, in local parlance, the contest in Kiambaa is a tale of “two fathers”. The first is “baba wa mugate” (the father who brings bread home); the other is “baba witu” or the biological father. Baba is too busy at work in the city and has no time to come home. Instead, he has taken to frequently sending a friend going home to pass by the Pangani bakery, where they then sold an extraordinarily long bread known as Ndiiriga Mucii (I have not been home lately) and deliver it to his wife.

After years of delivery and non-disclosures of the real sender of the long loafs, a marital dispute erupted between baba witu and baba wa mugate. To the man’s chagrin, the children took sides with baba wa mugate. “Baba needs to come home now and redeem his family. He cannot send an emissary,” said Mzee Fredi Wa Wanjiru with a chuckle.

Kiambaa church

Two, the by-election is a tale of two Kiambaas. One is the constituency at stake; the other is the scene of the 2008 post-election “genocide”. Voters are treated to flashbacks of January 1, 2008 when attackers torched the Kenya Assemblies of God Church in Kiambaa village, Eldoret. More than 17 women, children and old people were burnt alive inside the church while more than 18 others escaped the infernal only to be shot with arrows, hacked with machetes and otherwise killed outside the church. 

One of these was “baby Kariuki”, who was thrown out of the church by a dying mother determined to save him, but thrown back into the flames by the attackers. The other is Anthony Njoroge Mbuthia, then 10 years old, who sustained severe burns. Anthony’s miraculous survival is the subject of a new book on the Kiambaa genocide,  Scarred Nation.

These were descendants of citizens of Kimbaa who bought land and migrated to the 5,000-acre village. Their cardinal sin is that they failed to integrate, named their new settlement after their original home constituency and voted for Mwai Kibaki as President in the 2007 election. It is unlikely the memory of Kiambaa will sway the outcome of the by-election. The vast majority of Kiambaa voters are young people who may not even remember the massacre.

Three, Kiambaa epitomises the dual crisis of public morals and memory in Kenya. Jubilee wonks parody the growing support for United Democratic Alliance (UDA) in Kiambaa as reflecting the “Ngiri” (warthog’s) memory. Social media is awash with 2007-2008 video clips where UDA leaders are warning of a coming attack on Kiambaa village.

Four, Kiambaa is a tale of unpaid political debts. Election time, noted the Roman orator, lawyer and politician Marcus Tullius Cicero, is when one calls in debts. In this context, driving UDA’s Kiambaa campaign is the narrative of “broken promises” and unpaid debts. In the heat of the campaigns and the proposed merger of the opposition National Super Alliance (Nasa) and Jubilee, Deputy President William Ruto finally declared the future of his politics is in UDA party. He is preparing to celebrate UDA victory in Kiambaa. In Juja, Moses Kuria’s People’s Empowerment Party (PEP) denied him and UDA the trophy. But in Kiambaa, PEP had to prove its claim true that Juja was won because PEP is a Mt Kenya party. 

Five, the Kiambaa by-election is a clash of two nations. Since 2015, when President Uhuru Kenyatta started waging the war on corruption, politics has become a clash of two nations. One is the vision of a “Moral Nation”, seeking wealth and prosperity built on integrity, values and mores. The other is the “Hustler Nation” where power rests on money, corruption, cartels, trafficking and other criminal “hustles”.  Beyond Kiambaa, the future of  Kenya rests on a clear choice between St Augustine’s moral and principled ‘City of God’ against the unscrupulous and corrupt ‘City of Man’.

Professor Peter Kagwanja is a former Government Adviser and currently Chief Executive at the Africa Policy Institute.