To those whom much is given, much is expected.
In Kenya, the community that has benefitted the most in independence Kenya – due to their industry, geographic spread, cultural orientation and historical happenchance, and yes, a bit of favouritism – is what is generically known as the Gikuyu, the people of Mt Kenya.
I say ‘generically known’ because this community is not as homogenous as it is made to be. Therein are several ethnic groups like the Gikuyu itself, the Meru, Embu, Tharaka, Nithi and Mbeere. Together they make up about a third of Kenya’s population of 50 million people.
It is this community that has produced 3 of Kenya’s four presidents, and save for a few months at the end of the Kanu Error, which has had one of their own either as head of state or deputy.
Because of the reasons stated above, this community has bestrode the country’s economy like a colossus, being blessed with fertile lands around Mt Kenya and the Central Rift Valley (geographic spread), traditionally being farmers (cultural orientation) and having enjoyed the benefits of western education first (historical happenchance).
This dominance of the socio-politico-economic ecosystem has not gone unnoticed. Other Kenyan communities have often felt marginalized and dominated by the Gikuyu, and frustrations have sometimes burst into open conflict.
These natural tensions took a devilish turn in 1992, when state-sponsored violence sought to evict the Gikuyu from the Rift Valley, culminating there in the Kiambaa Church Massacre of 2008.
In more recent times no one individual has personified the abhorrence and resentment of the Gikuyu nation than Raila Amolo Odinga, the pre-eminent leader of the boisterous and likeable Luo, once Kenya’s second largest ethnic group. His hatred and dislike of the Gikuyu is easily understood.
His father Jaramogi Odinga, a communist, was Kenya’s first vice-president before falling out with Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya’s first president. He was soon detained and expunged from the independence gravy train. Years later, in 1992, Gikuyus again betrayed the Odingas by fielding a rival opposition presidential candidate, Njindo Matiba, when it was almost apparent that Jaramogi would easily win against the unpopular dictator Daniel arap Moi. Because of the split opposition vote, Jaramogi lost.
Raila watched all this from the sidelines, bile rising, vowing revenge.
Raila’s angst and anger against the hegemonic Gikuyu exploded into the open in 2007 when he found support amongst militant sections of the Kalenjin, a community with its own grievances against the Gikuyu. His own community was too depleted by circumstances to wage any sustainable war of attrition. But with support from Northern Rift communities, Raila was able to formulate what he hoped would be the Final Solution to the Gikuyu problem – the 41-Against-1 Strategem. This stratagem would range all Kenya communities against the Gikuyu, cutting them down to size, reducing their political and economic footprint everywhere in Kenya once and for all.
It is because of this ideology that Kiambaa and many other atrocities happened in 2007. Gikuyu shops and dukas at the coast were looted, and the seeds of the atrocities like Mpeketoni were planted. Even in the placcid Western province, home to the Mulembe Nation, the people of peace, tensions built up against the Gikuyu.
But some of the most elaborate plans often go awry.
When, in a fit of rage and frustration William Samoei arap Ruto, Raila’s foremost Kalenjin general walked out on him just two years after the Kiambaa violence to embrace Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta, the princely scion of the hegemonic Gikuyu, Raila was outraged beyond measure. It was to him an unforgivable betrayal. Ruto became his enemy Number One, worse even than the conniving Gikuyu.
When Uhuru and Ruto formed an unstoppable political alliance, Raila almost went stark raving mad. It was a reality that he was not going to accept, the stuff of nightmares.
But more pain was to come his way in 2013 and twice in 2017; the Uhuruto alliance frustrated his presidential ambitions not once but thrice. At the core of the Uhuruto wins, of course, were millions of votes from the Odingas old nemesis – the Gikuyu.
Ageing, dejected, frustrated, crushed and abandoned by all but his most ardent ethnic allies, Raila was beaten. Once again, the Gikuyu had cut low his and his family’s ambitions. It was as if the Odingas were stuck in a time warp in 1966, when their patriach was kicked out of Kanu at Limuru.
In their exuberance and victory celebrations, however, the Gikuyu soon forgot an old reality; the fangs of a dead snake bite in as deadly a way as those of a live one.
In his defeat and anguish, in dark basements bedecked with lizard bones and dead frogs, Raila and his minions quietly developed a strategy to win all his former battles, and attain his dying ambition to punish the traitorous Ruto and forever diminish the Gikuyu. It was the Mother of All Plans, the plan to end all others.
It was a simple plan. Raila would warm his way into President Uhuru’s heart, breaking the president’s pact with his deputy Ruto and thus preventing the later from ever becoming president. To do this Raila would feign new-found love for the Gikuyu and their prince Uhuru while portraying Ruto - using the residue state machinery he controlled when he was the Prime Minister 10 years previously, loyal sections of the media and hundreds of socio-media activists - as the epitome of corruption, and most importantly, as Enemy Number One of the Gikuyu.
Scandal after scandal would be attributed to Ruto, poisoning his relationship with the nation and especially the Gikuyu, who concurrently would be reminded of the Kiambaa atrocity endlessly.
Guiled and deceived by Raila’s lies, the Gikuyu would then hopefully – in Raila’s Plan – desert Ruto in droves, breaking the covenant they had made with his Kalenjin community to support him for the presidency in 2022.
In a classic end-game, Raila would then turn to the Kalenjin, in fake sympathy, and proclaim from the hills: “We told you, we warned you that this arrogant community, the Gikuyu, is selfish and inward looking, totally unreliable and undependable. Look how they have used and dumped your son, Samoei, who we love and are willing to work with”.
And with that Raila, whose family has known nothing but pain and betrayal from the Gikuyu, would snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
His stratagem of 41-Against-1 would arise from the ashes like the phoenix, with the Gikuyu forever distrusted by all other communities, and the traitorous Ruto consigned to the dustbins of history. In his twilight years Raila would have achieved what his father, who once begged to be allowed to sit on the presidential throne even for a second - never did in three decades.
Which is why we return to where we begun; to those that most is given much is expected. The Gikuyu are the anchor community for this nation by sheer numbers and economic power. They MUST once and for all crush Raila by frustrating his plans not only to marginalise them but also to balkanise Kenya. They must show that they are a community of its word by voting enmass for William samoei arap Ruto, and not any one else. There is honour in loyalty and fidelity.
The Gikuyu must not pretend or entertain the thought that they are superior or above anyone else. They must use their hegemonic power wisely, making decisions that take the long-term welfare and sanctity of Kenya into consideration. In Ruto, they have a chance to break the 41-Against-1 Strategem once and for all. The Gikuyu must not flirt with the possibility of being isolated forever by all other Kenyan communities, thereby putting the nation at peril.
In this, they must defy their prince, Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta, if he insists on caressing a reptile that can bite even in death.