KKK Alliance: Our greatest shame!

The year 2009 will go down in history as Kenya’s epoch of many shameful man-made disastrous calamities. Top on that list is the transgression of tribalism. Because of tribalism we have elected misfits into leadership positions, which have led to the establishment of a House of Nincompoops in place of a Parliament; because of tribalism we have killed our pregnant mothers and raped their young daughters; because of tribalism we have slaughtered hundreds of our own brothers and sisters. And now our chauvinistic leaders have come out in the open to establish an obnoxious tribal organization which they, either by design or by sheer ignorance, call the KKK alliance.

Once upon a time, as a young Managing Editor of the Daily Nation, I had the misfortune of interviewing one David Duke in New Orleans. He was then the Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, commonly referred to as the KKK. I say the "misfortune" because of the most uncivil, if not barbaric, language used by the boss of the KKK during the interview. Words that came from his mouth were so horrific that I dare not repeat them here. Suffice it to say that he unsuccessfully tried to equate me to monkeys and baboons, which he describes as black people’s closest cousins. In his mind no Black man or woman was a fully developed human being and they, therefore, did not deserve being treated as such.

Today, when I repeat that story to my students, a cold chill still runs down my spine. It was therefore my greatest shock to hear people in my own country, who consider themselves respected leaders, with titles such as the Vice President, Deputy Prime Minister and Honourable Minister, forming a political alliance with a name exactly the same as David Duke’s KKK. Kalonzo Musyoka, Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto would like to tell us that their KKK stands for Kikuyu, Kamba and Kalenjin. But the aims and aspirations of their KKK are not different from David Duke’s xenophobic organization. Both are just as chauvinistic. They are also both shamelessly intolerant. The American organization is racist and the Kenya one is tribalist. So what is the difference? The American KKK seeks the supremacy of the White race headed by Anglo-Saxon Protestants. The Kenyan one wants to snatch political power in Kenya and establish a dictatorship headed by tribal chiefs. Honestly, I see no difference between the two.

Kenyans should just examine the political history of the leaders of the KKK alliance to get concrete evidence why it should be thrown into the dustbin of history. As the leader of the Orange Democratic Movement – Kenya (ODM-K), Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka has not sought permission from his party executive before pulling every member into an unholy alliance with the Deputy leader of ODM, William Ruto and the Chairman of Kanu, Uhuru Kenyatta. It was only a few short years ago when Kalonzo was denouncing, in the strongest possible words, the leadership of Ruto’s ODM and Kenyatta’s Kanu. What metamorphosis has the Vice President undergone to see his 2007 strongest political enemies as his strongest partners for the 2012 elections? Alternatively what changes have taken place in Ruto or Uhuru’s leadership to attract the Kamba leader?

Kalonzo has been a loyal member of Kanu, Liberal Democratic Party, the National Rainbow Coalition, and ODM-K. All within a short period of time since he joined politics in 1983 when he unsuccessfully tried to represent the people of Kitui North in Parliament as a supporter of the dreaded one party political system in Kenya. Strictly speaking, Kalonzo Musyoka does not have a political philosophy he believes in. He changes his political colours like a chameleon. Today he is preparing Kenyans to vote for him as the next President in the 2012 elections as the leader of the KKK Alliance in the country. But will the others in his group let him take the lead? Even more important than that, will the Kamba people be prepared to be led by their noses by a man who wants to isolate them from the rest of Kenyans?

To answer the last question first, the Kamba people , who overwhelmingly backed Kalonzo in 2007 as the leader of the ODM-K should ask their leader what philosophical changes have taken place in Kanu or ODM for Kalonzo to want to cooperate with Uhuru as the Kanu Chairman or Ruto as the Deputy Leader of the ODM? They should also want to know the significance of Kikuyu, Kamba and Kalenjin political alliance against the rest of the country? Why, for example , should the Kambas in Mariakani, consider themselves closer to the Kikuyus in the Central Province and Kalenjins in the Rift Valley than the Mijikenda people of Mariakani , Miritini , Changamwe, and Mombasa which are all close next door neighbours, and have been for decades?

As to the first question , which is extremely mind boggling, it is always amazing to see people who believe in no ideology at all ganging up together to form a political alliance based on tribal loyalty, when in fact they belong to three different tribes. None of the three leaders i.e. Kalonzo, Kenyatta and Ruto has shown a remote willingness to step down for the other, for the Presidency of Kenya after Kibaki. The only thing they have in common is the perception that they have the ability of putting their entire communities in their pockets. By the look of things the trio is in for a very big surprise this time.

The majority of the new generation of voters, whose number run into millions and are scattered all over the country, have two things in common: Poverty and unemployment. They all rightly believe they are in that predicament because of the greedy leadership of the likes of Ruto, Kalonzo and Kenyatta. They believe the only salvation they have is the use of the ballot, rather than the bullet, to bring about the desired change. After all, that method has succeeded in the most powerful country where a Black man was only considered a slave, and today he is the most powerful leader introducing changes that could only be confined to a dream world.

The story of Uhuru Kenyatta is basically the same as that of Kalonzo Musyoka. Though born with a silver spoon in his mouth, his only hope of succeeding Mwai Kibaki at State House is to be accepted as the official Presidential candidate of the KKK alliance. Uhuru erroneously believes he is the undisputed leader of the Kikuyu people, who have supported his family for a long time, even before he was born. What Uhuru forgets, or is incapable of comprehending, is that the majority of the Kikuyus of today, who are the majority of young voters in Central Province, believe the rich in their community have only become so by robbing their forefathers. The majority of the rich Kikuyus are the children of home guards who killed a lot of Mau Mau in the struggle for liberation before independence. The majority of the poor among the Kikuyus today are children of the Mau Mau freedom fighters who, until today, have never seen the fruits of independence. In the next election they too see the power of the ballot bringing justice into the political scenario of the country.

Of the three KKK leaders, it is only William Ruto who has the backing of his people in the Rift Valley. But if they remember the history of how Daniel Toroitich arap Moi, who made them back his hand picked Presidential candidature of Uhuru Kenyatta in 2002, led them to be isolated by the entire country, they may not support Ruto for long . After all the Kalenjins are the quickest people in changing their minds in the entire country. If you don’t believe me, ask Raila Odinga.