Why do President Uhuru Kenyatta’s men desert him?

President Uhuru Kenyatta has a problem. Of retaining loyalty. Why is it that many of the people he starts off with and sponsors for high positions end up turning against him? I don't know why. It's mystifying. A sample:

●National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi: Since their Kanu days together in the 90s, he was one of Uhuru's troubleshooters. He was in a political team that included the likes of David Murathe, which Uhuru put together and privately funded over the years as he set his path to the presidency. Once Uhuru got the top office in 2013, he ensured Muturi became Speaker. Jubilee MPs were 'whipped' to elect him. Now in the twilight days of the Uhuru presidency, Muturi has metamorphosed. He's wormed his way into DP William Ruto's camp. Why? A senior counsel of my acquaintance thinks the motivation is simple: self-actualisation.

Muturi was a big enough catch as to make one of the Kenya Kwanza Alliance principals drool in unconcealed satisfaction: “There's nothing like a Deep State anymore.”

Disputed ‘coronation’

Muturi's subterfuge was exposed last year when, in a deceptively innocuous ceremony, he got himself crowned “Gema spokesman” at the hallowed Mukurwe wa Nyagathanga shrine in Mûrang'a. Leading him by the hand was a pro-Ruto member of Uhuru's extended family, Kung'u Muigai. Murang'a Governor Mwangi wa Iria and the Gîkûyû Council of Elders hotly disputed the “coronation” and dismissed the elders involved as fake. Actually hardly anybody recognises Muturi as “Gema spokesman”.

●Moses Kuria: He's the MP for Uhuru's home constituency of Gatundu South. When the previous MP Jossy Ngugi died in 2014, his widow Joyce looked a sure bet to win the by-election. Then suddenly Kuria was plucked from obscurity and became the frontrunner. Under pressure, Mrs Ngugi opted not to run. Another strongly favoured candidate, lawyer Joachim Kamere, pulled out of the race with a curious explanation of not wanting “to antagonise the TNA powers that be”. Gatundu residents knew very well who was pulling the strings. Kuria went in unopposed. He was re-elected in 2017 with a tidy majority. Today, Kuria is the most vulgar and vitriolic critic of Uhuru. Nor does he spare the President's family. Mama Ngina Kenyatta's recent public response? It's all because of a bad upbringing.

●Johnson Sakaja: When Uhuru launched TNA in 2012, he hired the unknown young man to be its chairman. He then nominated him to the National Assembly. Come 2017, Jubilee fronted him for Nairobi's Senate seat. He was elected with a big majority by party loyalists. Sakaja has since dumped Jubilee for UDA. He is now running for the Nairobi gubernatorial seat on that party's ticket.

I once read an interview where Sakaja claimed, intriguingly, to have been the one who convinced Uhuru to choose Ruto to partner with in what became the TNA-URP coalition. Maybe Sakaja was selecting his own long-term preference by stealth? Reportedly Uhuru had preferred Eugene Wamalwa (currently CS Defence). Indeed, Wamalwa was the keynote speaker during the glitzy 2012 TNA launch at KICC. Who knows what trajectory Kenyan politics would have taken if Uhuru had been left alone to follow his instincts?

●J P Mwirigi: When the 23-year-old was elected MP for Igembe South in 2017, Uhuru bought him his first car, a Prado. Mwirigi had travelled to Nairobi for his parliamentary induction in a matatu, and a relative gave him a place to sleep. The young man today is a devotee of UDA. Astonishingly, he recently said he owes Uhuru nothing for the car gift. That was after he was criticised for “betraying” the President. More astonishingly, he said without batting an eyelid that it was Ruto who prompted Uhuru to buy him the car. Really? Why didn't Ruto simply buy it for him? Mwirigi had more choice words to say that were a study in juvenile rudeness. For all he cared, he said, Uhuru could come and take back his car. Perhaps this posturing is what has merited the MP getting a direct UDA nomination ticket?

Mwirigi's behaviour has become a metaphor for ungratefulness. It's really a character flaw. I can think of other politicians who share that trait (Senator Isaac Mwaura?) but Mwirigi takes the biscuit. If I were him, I would just return the car in peace. Without histrionics.

A great boon

●Anne Waiguru: She was a little-known technocrat before Uhuru appointed her CS for Devolution in 2013. She hadn't sought a Cabinet job but was aiming for a PS appointment instead. She quickly earned a reputation as one of the best-wired Cabinet members. The NYS corruption furore that engulfed her ministry was a low point of her tenure. Though she limped on for a while, she had become a damaged brand and in 2015 she resigned, asking the President to assign her “lighter duties”. She bounced back into the limelight in 2017 when she ran for the Kirinyaga gubernatorial seat on a Jubilee ticket and won, despite her minimal political experience. Last year she jumped ship to UDA, where her previous closeness to Uhuru, as in Muturi's case, was treated as a great boon. No wonder Purity Ngirici was shoved aside to accommodate her.

I do appreciate a time comes when individuals want to make independent choices. It's their right. You don't have to remain tied to a person because he once did you a good turn in life. People move on, however strange the directions they take. Many are fleeing what they see as a sinking ship. Even the once formidable Paul Muite has found new friends in Ruto and Jimi Wanjigi. Ah, politics. Still, there's something called honour. Does it hold any value anymore? The past, however, can be very unforgiving.

Anyway, this article was really about Uhuru. There's a grave problem somewhere. Sad.

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