Kabando: The reluctant Kikuyu insider 0 Comments Print Though he has been elected twice as MP for Mukurweini and even appointed assistant minister, Kabando wa Kabando has never been what you’ll call an insider of the Mt Kenya elite that has been calling the shots at State House for more than 10 years. PHOTO/FILE In Summary But the fiery Jubilee MP believes everything is in a name and he revealed to us why he changed his name from Godfrey Kariuki Mwangi. I built my way into politics independent of mainstream parties. I have rejected overtures for patronage politics as they were not favourable to those unknown to the owners of the now “retired” systems. I have been an outsider. Politics is about pragmatism and I have been proved right. If you are a politician and not in the business of searching for national influence and control of power then you are naïve and idealist. Today UDF is limping and staggering. Though he has been elected twice as MP for Mukurweini and even appointed assistant minister, Kabando wa Kabando has never been what you’ll call an insider of the Mt Kenya elite that has been calling the shots at State House for more than 10 years. “Perhaps it is my ego,” he says. “I am the only central Kenya politician President Kibaki came to campaign against in the 2007 General Election and I know even this administration preferred another candidate in the March 4 election,” says the former University of Nairobi student leader and Nairobi Water Company chief executive. In Parliament, Mr Kabando cuts the image of a heckler, Uhuru sycophant, an incorrigible tribalist or even warmonger. But a conversation with him revealed a highly patient, eloquent and thoughtful individual who, though has shed off his university-days militancy, remains furiously independent and intellectually stimulating. In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the writer suggests that there is nothing in a name. That what matters is the person. Juliet, the heroine, cries: What’s in a name?/that which we call a rose/ By any other name would smell as sweet;/ So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d, /Retain that dear perfection which he owes/ Without that title.” But the fiery Jubilee MP believes everything is in a name and he revealed to us why he changed his name from Godfrey Kariuki Mwangi and why he is ready to call the Uhuru-Ruto government to account. Q: What’s in a name? A: A name describes an identity. I had been given my maternal grandfather’s name, but I wanted to emphasise Kabando, my paternal grandfather’s name because we come from the southern tip of Mukurweini near the Ukambani belt where there are short people. Within our community there isn’t anybody who has been able to bring out its meaning, but I like it because it is a unique name. Q: By pushing for the sacking of Lands Cabinet Secretary Charity Ngilu over irregular appointments, Jubilee MPs acted out of turn, with the trend so far being to defend their own with their numbers. A: Ngilu acted with utmost impunity when she appeared before the Committee (on Lands). Can James Mwangi, even with all his money — you know a billionaire — act like that before the Equity board? She also carries a litany of transgressions dating as far back as the last Parliament where she served in several ministries. But more importantly, she lied under oath to the committee which has the same standing as the High Court. Under the 2010 Constitution, nobody is indispensable. The threshold has been raised. Q: You have in the past said your worst mistake for a long time was to naively participate in the pursuit of democracy by following everybody’s script and that one can never achieve one’s ambitions and aspirations unless he follows his or her own script. What is your script? A: Being politically and socially conscious of responsibilities and obligations of public service and the needs of the people I represent. Q: Is that not Uhuru’s script? A: My support for Uhuru Kenyatta is a product of conscious engagement, especially on matters to do with sovereignty. My passionate support for the President comes from the fact some of the leaders we have are lackeys of foreign powers and I know him to take very firm stands which resonate with my philosophy. Q: You have a Master’s degree in Public Policy Management from the State University of New York and in a past interview you were grateful that the new environment and studies “opened up your horizon and created new opportunities, challenges and contacts for you.” Yet today you have no kind words for the US to the extent that you were banned from the country after the post-election violence. A: No, No I was not banned. I only received a condescending letter from Ambassador Michael Rannenberger telling me that if I wanted to travel to the US I must show that I was taking part in peace initiatives. You know, the Kenya National Human Rights Commission had written a report where I was supposed to be importing arms from Ethiopia during the violence and commissioning oaths at Njenga Karume’s home, which was all ridiculous. But for a junior official (an equivalent of a deputy director) of a foreign country to write such a letter to an MP was the height of folly. I proceeded to my alma mater where I received the most distinguished award for the graduate class of 2001. But the tragedy really is that we supplicate before them. Q: Kibaki campaigned against you in 2007. They opposed you again in March. Why are they nervous with you? A: I built my way into politics independent of mainstream parties. I have rejected overtures for patronage politics as they were not favourable to those unknown to the owners of the now “retired” systems. I have been an outsider. Q: “Yes, they spilt my blood, hurt me, but nobody can subdue my spirit. God, and the law will be my judge. Am out of hospital. Good night pals. Peace to Kenya. Peace.” This is what you posted on your Facebook page on the night of March 5, 2013 when you were attacked in your constituency. Have you forgiven them? A: Yes I went to area churches in April and publicly forgave them. I also contacted their sponsor and he stated the need for working together for development. Q: You are on record as saying some of the key players in the struggle for democracy, especially, men of the cloth, were deeply corruptible. Do you still hold the same view of the current crop of clergy? A: There is not a single organisation in this country which can claim a higher moral ground, be it the church, media, labour union, the professions, name it because we have a shared anatomy. When we kicked out Moi in 2002 we saw Kenyans taking charge of their country — arresting policemen taking bribes and repossessing KICC, the tallest tower within the CBD of the biggest city in East Africa. Kenyans were ready to go the Singapore way. But as much as we can credit Mzee Kibaki for the economic recovery, infrastructure growth, and free primary education, one thing that stands out that needs to be quickly addressed by the Presidency is to slay the dragon of impunity and corruption where a friend or a kin does not count. And that is what we are telling the President and we shall continue telling him just as voters tell us all the time. We are not loyalists in blindness. Q: A speech or a text message from Kabando wa Kabando is often laced with alliteration and tongue-twisters. What is the root of your love for the poetic? A: When I was in school I loved to read literature and political journals. When I went to high school I hoped to study literature and religious education, but I was invited to sciences which was never and will never be my passion. But because my mother was dealing with my siblings’ fees I did not pursue further. But I engaged in a lot of writing and I wrote letters to all my friends. I loved writing a lot and three times my essay won in the district competition. Then I became a regular letter writer to the Sunday Nation from 1994 to 1998. Q: Some have accused you of using the big words to bamboozle rather than to communicate. A: One should have a flair for language. And what one sees as difficult language is basic for another. Q: You are a UDF founder member. But you made an about turn and joined TNA. A: We — Ndiritu Muriithi, Abdikadir Mohammed, George Nyamweya, Jeremiah Kioni and others — planned a non-violent democratic revolution by having a non-controversial and empirically conscious person of 45 and below without any prejudice to other generations lead. But at no time in our deliberations did we feature Musalia Mudavadi. It only came to my knowledge five days before Mudavadi came. I had a moral obligation and political duty to explain to the country that I was not party to a political scheme which had no merit and which had been erratically organised. Q: Your critics say you abandoned Musalia for your tribesman Uhuru. It was the tribe stupid. A: Those accusing others of tribalism are themselves tribalists. Politics is about pragmatism and I have been proved right. If you are a politician and not in the business of searching for national influence and control of power then you are naïve and idealist. Today UDF is limping and staggering. Q: To expand vocabulary to your level fluency, one must read a lot. Which books have made the most influence in your life? A: I read generally. Magazines like New Africa, tabloids like the Washington Post, The Times, Daily Nation, The Star, The Standard and I also read general articles on the Internet. I also read novels and books on universal leadership like What If There Had Not Been Lee Kwan Yu, a must read for any political leader; and Martin Oduor- Otieno’s Beyond the Shadows of my Dreams. Q: Any of the Raila books? I only read the serialised sections and I wish he writes another where he doesn’t leave lacunas. But Raila and I are good friends, by the way. There is no living figure in this country who has given his best shot for democracy like Raila. And we have a history. When we were kicked out of the university we went to lawyers from Nyeri and the rest of Mt Kenya region, but we were rebuffed. Aaron Ringera was the university’s lawyer. Lee Muthoga told us to go back to school and behave. But when we went to see Raila at Agip House, he listened to us, gave us Sh400 and referred us to James Orengo who further referred us to Otieno Kajwang’. Kajwang’ stuck with us for two years without us paying him a cent until he obtained an injunction which allowed us to finish university. During Jaramogi’s first anniversary in 1995, we repaid kindness with kindness and I led a group of 20 youth, mostly from Mt Kenya, to join Obasanjo at Kang’o ka Jaramogi. We stayed with the family and danced with villagers till midnight when the DC threw tear gas at us and even in the widows’ bedrooms. We slept at Kang’o ka Jaramogi’s forest till morning. I think Raila appreciates. Q: So why didn’t you vote for him? A: I did not vote for him, but support can be moral. At some point he also spoilt things for himself and I think he would have had a very acrimonious presidency. I remember asking him not to be friends with Mungiki, but he was reckless. I still think it was possible for him to keep William Ruto, Ngilu, Joseph Nyaga and so on. He could also have retained Balala but he was using people like Joho to fight him. I would recommend to Raila and all politicians John Maxwell’s The Treasure of a Friend. They will learn the simple things which keep friends and stimulate appreciation. Q: What are you reading now? A: The Story Of My Experience With Truth by Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi embodies the most enduring figure of achieving monumental change through meditative processes. I am also re-reading The Art of War by Sun Tsu. I have bought the Raila book, Flames of Freedom but I have not started reading it. Q: The quality of debate during your student activism was characterised by intellectual rigour and clear ideological standpoints, yet today the student voice is dominated by tribal sentiment. When did the rain begin beating student politics? A: Different circumstances call for different applications. In our time we were an arm of the movement agitating for change. Today there are no people in detention to agitate for their release. But the tragedy of our time is when students seek patronage from fellow kinsmen in search of ethnic leadership. Today student politics has been commercialised. Q: Yet some say Moi bought you a ‘Manyanga’ to sell the soul of SONU. A: That is utter nonsense from my detractors. Some even said it was bought by Matiba, others mentioned DP. Q: So who bought it? A: Bought what? The matatu did not exist. I have never owned a matatu or even a boda boda. It was jealousy from my rivals after I formed an informal student organisation which became very strong. What happened is that after SONU was re-registered in 1992 some of us found it a tad too soft. Q: There are complaints that most of the public appointments in the last few months have gone to the President’s Kikuyu community. Kabando of old would have opposed that. A: I don’t know of any petition regarding irregular or prejudiced appointments. For instance I have in my mail a petition from the Muhoroni sugar belt and I am acting on it. Q: You have often called yourself the son of a woman. A: My father died when I was in Standard Three and my mother brought us up. She is a father figure, a very tough disciplinarian who defied patriarchy of the village to sell land against all advice so that all her six children could get an education of up to least Form Four.
Posted on: Sun, 10 Nov 2013 05:54:13 +0000
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