a story first carried out by World News Chronicle titled ‘Arrest Warrant Against Prominent Businessman Causes Concern in Kenya‘
Now, this is not a story about ODM or CORD or opposition politics per
se, this is another story, a story about a man whose charming public
demeanour and strong stand with ODM even at a time Rift Valley was
walking out often puzzled me.
However, behind the veneer of candour and the aura of satisfaction,
Kigen is carrying within him the burden – both financial and
psychological – of a political event whose then beneficiary is now the
President of Kenya: Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta.
In a larger sense, it is a story about political fixing in Kenya
after the fallout in YK-92 KANU which ensured part of the then top
players in Moi re-election political machine in 1992 were finished
completely of their wealth and stature in society. It is a story about
political opportunism and betrayal that has run a whole decade! It is a
sad story.
The actors in this story are big, powerful and larger-than-life
people but the lesson can still be relevant to the hoi polloi struggling
endlessly to put political leaders in power. Because, clearly, this is
another story of small people high up in government or working for
politicians finding themselves at the losing end.
Some times in 2002, Micah Kipkemboi Kigen was a staunch Uhuru
supporter. He was the chairman of the Kanu Action group, a prominent
lobby group whose fangs could only be compared to YK-92 a decade
earlier. KAG, unlike YK-92 which got Moi elected as the first president
after repeal of section 2A of the old constitution, did not get Uhuru to
power in 2002. The opposition wave swept the electorate as Uhuru was
defeated with a combined political machine campaign machine of LDP/NAK
which put Mwai Kibaki to power.
Humiliated in defeat, KANU, then heavily dominated by Kalenjin
politicians and a section of the Kikuyu, promised another fight. It is
said Uhuru swore after that defeat never to lose another presidential
election. And while the cockerel will never crow, Uhuru is the president
again, having incubated another bird – the dove.
Between 2002 and 2013 saw a decade whose politics engineered major
re-alignments, mergers, walk-outs and reunions that were unimaginable in
2002. The victors of 2002 became the vanquished of 2013. Two
referendums, two disputed elections, one inter-ethnic war, a Grand
Coalition Government, a second prime minister and so on.
Political players of 2002 changed parties too. Ruto left KANU and
joined ODM. Uhuru, as an opposition leader, ‘joined’ the government! A
second prime minister was defeated by his former deputy. Democracy, so
it was revealed, got tried during the two elections and at the Supreme
Court.
As politicians changed their diapers, so were the political nannies. I
mean, with the tectonic shifts in alliances and coalitions; new party
formations and the death knell of old parties – like DP, LDP,SDP etc –
individuals too changed. Those who were in KANU in 2002 became
reformists in ODM and now part of the ‘digital dream’ in Jubilee. Those
who opposed Moi rule and called Toroitich all manner of names – the
opposition of the 1990s – parties like DP and NDP and the Kikuyu/Luo
masses who had literally turned their back on the Moi government; these
too created new tyrannies and dictatorships as menacing as KANU. I mean,
where Moi state oversaw multi-million Goldernberg scandal; Kibaki state
engineered the multi-billion Anglo-leasing scandal, and, Kibaki/Raila
State too added the Triton Saga and the Maize Scandal!
Where Moi detained everyone, assassinated a few; Kibaki state state
too had its share of extra-judicial killings. Already, the first months
of Uhuru state has seen the “disappearance” of two former appendages –
Bogonko Bosire and Albert Muriuki.
Micah Kigen, the subject of this piece, too changed, or should I say, evolved?
In 2002, Kigen was a KANUist and Chairman of the biggest lobby group
for Uhuru’s candidature – KANU Action Group – often abbreviated as KAG.
In 2007 he was safely in ODM, same as now. In ODM, his lobby group,
FORA, which he chaired, was potent team until other lobbies campaigning
for Raila Odinga in the 2013 elections muddied the whole political
lobbying campaign strategy with disastrous consequences.
Kigen, is a pioneer political lobbyist and campaign strategist. He
told this writer he is a ‘veteran’. He belongs to a generation whose
lobby machine, YK-92, remains the most successful to date.
Interestingly, much as people often malign former president Moi, his
state also developed the practice of political lobbying; a phenomenon
quite acceptable as a democratic political practice in western
democracies from where most post-colonial Africa owe their political
systems, including Kenya.
But for Kigen, something remained immutable; static as the laws of the Medes and the Persians. This was the campaign debt that KANU Action Group (KAG) incurred while attempting to put Uhuru to power in 2002.
Back then, the outstanding debt, after partying with over Ksh 30
million, stood at Ksh 800,461 (according to court documents seen by this
writer) which has now accumulated to Ksh1,029,548 when the debt
collection and court collection dues were added to it. To reduce the
debt to the Ksh 800,461, Kigen saw his houses, vehicles and other
machineries auctioned at a throw away prices. It humiliated him,
especially, with a family to cater for.
“Were these things to happen to me as an individual, I would have
lived by them as a man, an African man. . .but I had a family, I had
kids I was schooling. I had dependants I was feeding,” reminisces Kigen.
The initial debt arose as a result of failure by KANU/Uhuru to pay
for the campaign materials used by Uhuru campaign during the 2002
campaigns.
In a series of letters and verbal contacts between Kigen and the
company which supplied the materials (Capital Colours Creative Design
Ltd); and between the company and KANU; and, Kigen to Uhuru; Kigen and
Ole Sunkuli (then KANU Secretary General) and Kigen and Moi (former
President), including a one week hunger strike in Moi’s Kabarak home,
this unpaid debt became Kigen’s burden.
In one particular letter dated November 20th 2003 and addressed to
then KANU Secretary General, Mr Julius Ole Sunkuli (deceased early this
year) by Osotho Investments, the debt collectors contracted by Capital
Colours Designs Ltd, the company wrote to KANU to show commitments
towards clearing the dead.
“. . .in order for us to be sure that the payment is indeed being
considered, our client would only be faithful if KANU as the sponsoring
party also makes genuine commitment in writing that it is indeed liable
to clear the outstanding overdue account with our client. . .”
This case went under for some time until in 2010 when it was
resurrected. Tellingly, 2010 was the same year most senior politicians
in the Rift Valley begun showing signs of possible walkout from ODM.
Kigen believes the case was revived to finish him politically.
He wrote several letters to then Deputy Prime Minister and Minister
of Finance Uhuru Kenyatta, now President, Kigen calls Uhuru’s attention
to his situation.
“As you are aware, during the campaigns leading to the 2002
elections, KANU Action Group (KAG) a lobby group actively backed your
candidature for the presidency. . .back, and as of now, your suitability
for the highest office in the land was and will never be in doubt. KAG
support was therefore solid and equivocal”.
Kigen continues in the letter, “. . .by the end of the exercise, huge
sums of money remained unpaid and outstanding. I have had to bear the
burden singularly as I was the Chairman of KAG and the only tangible
authority to be held responsible . . . subsequently; I have lost so much
property by way of public auction. . .”
In another letter, Kigen wrote to Uhuru, “. . .It transpires that an
Order of Execution…has been issued which exposes me to the horrid
reality of arrest and committal to a civil jail. . .such an eventuality
will be far reaching in damages and irreparable. . .”
Kigen, clutching at every feeble straw in his way, again reminded
Uhuru of the outstanding debt and the lengths KAG and himself went to
campaign for Uhuru in 2002:
“Mheshimiwa, remember this task was undertaken in good faith in the
firm belief of your viability as a credible candidate in the
presidential contest. This confidence in you still stands and you will
need this same set up in the foreseeable future to satisfy the ambition
that is dear to the hearts of many as it is to yours. . .I beseech you
to do me the right turn and rescue me from this undue shame and
embarrassment”.
Sadly, Uhuru, despite showing interest in assisting bring this debt to an end, developed cold feet.
To Kigen, Uhuru’s behaviour may have been caused by pressure within
the then KANU leadership in the Rift Valley. The plot, which Kigen would
intimate to Uhuru, “. . .in the tricky arena of politics, you cannot
rule out vengeance and cold play. . .” remains the biggest obstacle to
clearing the debt. Within Rift Valley, there seems to exist an unwritten
political rule that the enemy must be fatally vanquished by all means
possible.
Kigen’s case is not unique. There are many political losers fighting
never ending wars with those who went to the Moi School of politics.
Much as the country ostracises members of the outlawed YK-92 for running
down the country in the 1990s, the same system which built them in
several occasions crushed many of them.
For example, the never ending battles between Cyrus Jirongo and the
government stems from the post YK-92 fallout in which Jirongo, among
other YK-92 young Turks, barely two months after ensuring YK made KANU
and Moi trounce the opposition, was accused of plotting to topple the
government by help of Yoweri Museveni in an arrangement where Kenneth
Matiba would be sworn in.
These intricacies have never been revisited because KANU is still
very much alive; remember, even a colossus institution like Raila Odinga
could not write everything in his recent memoir, warning that the
ground has not substantially shifted to accommodate the tumultuous
1980s!
Sad as it is, Kigen lost plum properties to repay a debt that old
KANU acolytes saw as an opportunity to financially finish him. Former
President Moi refused to clear the debt as the then KANU Chairman. Ole
Sunkuli refused to help. Uhuru, who would have been the 2002 beneficiary
of the KAG mobilization, jinxed out.
As a man repaid political debts with own personal fortune,
he saw his wealth disappear one property after the other. From prime
houses to vehicles, the fall was fast and hard.
“I sacrificed for Uhuru. It is a sacrifice most of the people in this
nature of work often do. Lobbyists are the unsung heroes of political
leaders. They are the chief mobilizers. However, once an election is
over, no one wants to look back at you. Across many parties today, there
are tens of others who did everything to ensure these leaders get the
political positions they wanted, or rise to the prominence that would
allow them fight it out at a latter time,” says Kigen. “Leaders need to
look back,” he quips.
To Kigen, the poor institutionalization of political lobbying has
seen individuals lose out when their godfathers take over; or lose out
altogether. But the lack of appreciation, as simple as it can get, just
complicates the matter. Political leaders in Kenya have perfected the
catch-phrase: Use-and-dump.
It is even egregious when some of the politicians are themselves very
wealthy Kenyans. One would ask: How much could it cost Uhuru Kenyatta,
then KANU leader, to pay this debt? If not Uhuru, former president Moi?
The failure then is attributed to a culture that glorifies betrayal of
close aides and supporters in politics.
Because the debt still stands, one only hopes President Uhuru
Kenyatta will finally recognize this decade old wrong and correct it.
For a politician, it is never too late.
No comments:
Post a Comment