By Anderson Ojwang
When Nyeri Governor Mutahi Kahiga allegedly celebrated the recent demise of Raila Odinga, he was indeed flogging a dead horse.
The horse traversed the Mountain and became the agenda for the community in its political dispensation.
For the last six decades, the horse — the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga family — has remained a political campaign tool in the region.
It has been the quickest-selling political brand, and through it, several politicians have risen to elective seats, while those who have sided with the horse have had their political ambitions vanquished.
After independence and the eventual fallout between President, the late Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, and his Vice-President, the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, the former resorted to oathing the community against the Luo.
Former Cabinet Secretary Martha Karua has candidly spoken about the 1969 oath by the Mt Kenya community against the lake.
“I am in Kerugoya in Standard Six. Suddenly there is oathing — the 1969 oath. All people of Mt Kenya are trooping to Gatundu, to Jomo Kenyatta’s home to take oath.
Even school children are being told to take oath. I come home for holiday, I am being told even my younger brothers walked to go and take oath. The oath was being taken in Kabare. People walked for eight kilometres. A whole school, people of all ages, would walk.
The oath was that the presidency will not go outside Mt Kenya and will not go, especially, to the Luo nation,” she said then.
After the fallout and the oathing, Odinga became a tool and object of campaign in Mt Kenya, and any attempt to reconcile the communities to support a candidate from Nyanza has often met stiff opposition.
When Jaramogi exited, his son Raila entered, who, like his father, tried several times to appease the Mountain and bury the hatchet — but Raila remained the black sheep.
That is why, when Kahiga recently spoke in his native Kikuyu language, he claimed that Odinga’s demise was a blessing in disguise for the Mt Kenya region, stating that the former Prime Minister’s passing on would now free government resources for the Central Kenya region.
Kahiga maintained that the former Prime Minister’s handshake with President William Ruto had shifted government resources to the Nyanza region.
“You can see what had been planned, but God brought something up. Now it’s total confusion. Everybody can see that. We did not harbour hate for anyone, but God came through for us.
For you who do not travel — because I was in that region — all goodies were being directed there because of tomorrow’s plans, because it seemed like they did away with us, but God came and brought this thing,” he claimed.
This explains why, in the 2022 General Elections, when President Uhuru Kenyatta endorsed Raila for the presidency, Ruto’s team, led by impeached Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, had an easy task deconstructing Uhuru and Raila in the Mountain.
“We have chosen Raila Odinga, without any opposition, to be the fifth President of Kenya,” Kenyatta told a then cheering crowd of thousands in the capital, Nairobi.
But the endorsement was quickly dismissed, and the 1969 oath was evoked — something that was manifested in the 2022 presidential election results in Mt Kenya.
President Ruto received 3.5 million votes from Mt Kenya, while Raila, with the support of Uhuru, managed only 622,473.
- Kiambu County – Total registered voters: 1,275,168, of which Raila got 210,580, while Ruto received 606,429.
- Murang’a County – Total registered voters: 621,027, of which Raila received 73,526, while Ruto got 343,349.
- Kirinyaga County – Total registered voters: 376,137; Raila got 37,909, while Ruto received 220,984.
- Nyeri County – Total registered voters: 482,000, of which Raila got 52,052, while Ruto won by 272,507.
- Nyandarua County – Total registered voters: 361,217, of which Raila received 49,228, while Ruto won by 189,519.
- Tharaka-Nithi County – Total registered voters: 231,966; Raila got 15,062, while Ruto received 145,081.
- Meru County – Total registered voters: 772,573, with Raila getting 103,679, while Ruto won 398,946.
- Embu County – Total registered voters: 334,684, of which Raila got 31,209, while Ruto secured 187,981.
After Raila’s failed AU Chairmanship bid, the former Prime Minister was offered overtures for the 2027 presidential election.
Gachagua said, “If Raila Odinga wants to be President in Kenya, he can talk to us. We have no problem with Raila; our main problem is Ruto. ODM MPs voted for my impeachment because Ruto deceived them, but I have no problem with them. My problem is President William Ruto,” he said.
But Raila dismissed the overture, wondering how Gachagua could forget so fast when he used to abuse him while in power.
While in office, Gachagua seized every opportunity to humiliate Raila by placing traps in State House to ensure Raila and Ruto never met.
But he later said he had removed all the traps he had set at State House, allowing ODM leader Raila Odinga unfettered access to the Head of State.
Gachagua said he removed the traps after noticing that his boss appeared to be reuniting with a former political foe.
“My boss and I had agreed we set up traps so that Raila does not join the government through the back door. I would check the traps every morning and evening.
I would constantly check the traps to see whether they had captured anything,” he said then.
“Uhuru Kenyatta told us Raila was bad, but they ended up working together. Ruto told us Raila was bad, but they are working together. I sat and wondered — was I, Gachagua, in the dark?
I started wondering why we beat Uhuru so much, saying we did not want Raila, we wanted Ruto — so the person who made us hate Uhuru has now been declared to be a good person by President Ruto,” he said then.
For politicians from Mt Kenya, criticism of Raila was a ticket to an elective post. With Raila now out of the picture, are they staring at political bankruptcy?
