The people and places that made Uhuru Kenyatta

“Life is a perpetual instruction in cause and effect,” thus famously declared Ralph Waldo Emerson, the acclaimed 19th Century American essayist, don, poet and philosopher.

Causes necessarily bear effects that in turn lead to further causes in a perpetual cause-effect cycle that, to a large extent, defines the predictable rhyme, rhythm, and reason of human existence.

Reminiscing on Uhuru Kenyatta, his exploits, choices and actions before and during his tenure as president, one sees a rather consequential sojourn. His parentage, the surroundings he grew up in, schools he attended and circles he patronized must have predisposed him to a worldview that had a bearing on his decisions, the choice of cabinet secretaries included.

How much did the environment Uhuru Kenyatta grow up in impart in him the desire—if at all—to one day become Kenya’s Head of State? Did he ascend to the presidency by sheer providence? Or did he consciously work hard at it? Were there forces, be they shadowy or otherwise, that were doggedly determined to thrust him to the capstone he ended up occupying?

Whatever his story is, from a cursory look, the chronicle of Uhuru Kenyatta’s rise to the apogee of power and authority in Kenya is beyond the purview of a brief profile such as this.

Indeed, any truly exhaustive account of his journey of life as a son of Kenya’s founding father, a scion of the court and a protégé of both Daniel arap Moi and Mwai Kibaki—the second and third presidents of Kenya, respectively—begs a magnus opus dedicated to nothing short of an encyclopedic inquiry into and subsequent documentation of a designedly muted yet richly bejeweled journal of his life and times.

Bellwether

Still, one would be justified to ask: with his rich heritage, how much did Uhuru borrow from the conduct of business recorded during Jomo’s, Moi’s and Kibaki’s tenures of office? And how, if ever, has such inference showed up during his time at the highest office in the land? That inquiry is squarely fodder for scholars of political science and leadership studies.

For now, therefore, this write-up will confine itself primarily to the province of the extent to which his lieutenants in the Cabinet contributed towards adorning President Uhuru’s leadership legacy.

While doing so, it would be remiss of any chronicler not to acknowledge Uhuru Kenyatta as the ultimate bellwether of his presidency and the entire crew of his adjutants.

So, what mission did Uhuru Kenyatta hope to achieve at the end of his time at the helm as he took over as president? What were his most treasured, perhaps undisclosed, but well-meaning dreams and inspirations for Kenya as he took the reins of power?

Which of them did he achieve; and which ones eluded him? And what apparatus accruing from previous presidential epochs did he embrace as props for the period he was in power? These questions have largely tempered the crafting of this pen portrait of the fourth president of the Republic of Kenya and Commander-in-Chief of Kenya’s Defence Forces, Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta, Chief of the Order of the Golden Heart (C.G.H).

Uhuru Kenyatta formally assumed office on Tuesday, the 9th of April 2013 in a carnivalesque event held at the imposing Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani. The splashy carnival celebrated the electoral triumph of two erstwhile ICC indictees – President-elect Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy, William Ruto.

Uhuru had won the 4th of March 2013 presidential poll with 50.07 percent beating Raila Odinga who garnered 43.31 percent, an outcome the latter challenged until the Supreme Court of Kenya pronounced its verdict in favour of Uhuru’s win.

The day Uhuru slipped into the shoes of his predecessor and mentor, Mwai Kibaki, the latter said in his handover speech that he had “…no doubt that the country is in good hands”, a declaration made in the presence of more than a dozen Heads of States and Governments. These were Nigeria’s Goodluck Jonathan, Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni, Tanzania’s John Pombe Magufuli, Rwanda’s Paul Kagame, and Ethiopia’s Hailemariam Desalegn.

Others were Togo’s Faure Gnassingbé, Zambia’s Edgar Lungu, Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, South Sudan’s Salva Kiir, Somali’s Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, Botswana’s Sereste Ian Khama, Djibouti’s Ismail Omar Guelleh, Namibia’s Hifikepunye Pohamba, and Gabon’s Ali Bongo Ondimba. In tow were several representatives of States and Governments, including a handful of members of diplomatic corps from around the world.

Bold pushback

As indeed expected, tantrums aimed at stoking adverse action against Kenya following the post-election violence of 2007/8, for which Uhuru and Ruto, among others, had been named either instigators or abettors, were methodically choreographed from certain quarters.

The atmosphere was hostile and targets had been identified. Yet, if the attendance of the considerable retinue of African Heads of States and Governments on the occasion of Uhuru’s swearing in is anything to go by, he had a resounding moral authority where it mattered most.

That defiant asseveration staged by African leaders triggered a bold pushback against what, in some quarters, was ICC’s link to geopolitically inspired subjugation of an underdog by a condescending West.

No wonder the noticeably loud expression of displeasure, if not outright revolt, by a considerable segment of leaders from across the continent present or not at the function.

Uhuru’s 2013 swearing-in moment provided a perfect platform from which Africa’s top leadership registered — by a show of numbers at the occasion — their distaste towards what in some conclaves amounted to ICC’s scornful and vexatious gawk on the continent.

At the event, Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni lashed out at ICC, accusing it of bending justice to “blackmail” and exert undue pressure on select jurisdictions, all aimed at subverting the course of justice in favour of partisan interests of dominant others.

“They are now using it [ICC] to install leaders of their choice and eliminate the ones they do not like,” Museveni is quoted as saying.

On the same day, the Human Rights Watch in a statement to media houses cheekily implored Kenya’s freshly installed leaders not to ignore their pledge to attend ICC trials. Such was the mixed bag of fortunes that presaged Uhuru’s tenure of office as president.

Congenital grandeur

Meanwhile, in his official swearing in speech Uhuru pronounced: “Today, work begins. The time has come not to ask what community we come from, but rather, what dreams we share.

The time has come to ask not what political party we belong to, but rather what partnerships we can build.” That statement was significant in the sense that the incoming president took the earliest opportunity available to him to express his desire to exorcise the demons of divisive politics, whose lowest moment was the post-election violence of 2007/08, attracted the prying eyes of the ICC.

Finally, the fourth President of Kenya at 52, the youngest Kenya has had thus far, had taken the oath of office and formally assumed the reins of power.

But what exactly drives the resolve of this man, fondly back then referred to by many as Kamwana - Kikuyu for young man? Who really is Uhuru Kenyatta and how does his impelling charm mask his otherwise congenital grandeur?

Born on the 26th of October 1961, Uhuru Kenyatta is Mzee Jomo Kenyatta and Mama Ngina Kenyatta nee Muhoho’s first-born child. He was born just as Kenya was preparing to break free from the colonial yoke with his father—later the founding president of Kenya—as one of the leading lights of the wave of freedom that swept across Africa at the time.

Word is that Mwai Kibaki, then the Kenya African National Union (KANU)—the party that propelled Kenya to independence—Executive Officer suggested that the newborn be named Uhuru.

Though Uhuru spent his early years in the palace, so to speak, clearly he and his siblings were not alienated from their African, and more specifically, Kikuyu roots. That observation is instructive because soon after independence many elite families of the time embraced Western lifestyles and all their affectations, including muting their mother tongues while embracing foreign languages, mainly English.

A clear testament to this fact is in the mastery of Kikuyu language in which Uhuru eloquently expresses himself in public from time to time.

Growing up at the palace for Uhuru meant that the sights and sounds of the courtly citadel he called home would manifestly impart in him a particular and unconventional worldview right from his formative years.

One can only imagine how the impressionable mind of a young Uhuru would interpret and perceive life with a routine that exposed him to a steady stream of high-profile guests, demands of exacting protocol and all the trappings and aides that come with the territory.

Where onlookers from a cross the fence could only imagine what such a life could possibly entail, for Uhuru it was second nature. He didn’t, therefore, need to wrack his brain to demystify the station of the presidency or even casually dream of scaling it.

Uhuru Kenyatta is an alumnus of St. Mary’s School, a prestigious institution where many children of the high and mighty were enrolled back in the day. At St. Mary’s, Uhuru enjoyed playing rugby and was a winger for the school team. Upon completing his high school education, Uhuru proceeded to Amherst College in Massachusetts, USA, where he studied political science and economics.

Before joining college, Uhuru worked briefly as a teller at the Kenya Commercial Bank where he earned Ksh600 per month. Once back to Kenya after his university studies, he registered a company, Wilham Kenya Limited, whose niche was in the export of horticultural produce. He also helped in managing his family’s extensive business interests.

Corridors of power

Save for the fleeting moment of national mourning following Mzee Jomo Kenyatta’s demise in 1978, little had been heard of Uhuru before and little was to be heard of him long thereafter. At the time Jomo Kenyatta passed on—after bestriding Kenya’s corridors of power like the fabled colossus for 15 years—Uhuru was in the twilight years of his teenage.

As the somber moment that attended to Mzee’s death dissipated, so did Uhuru vanish from the public scene until the dying days of the 1990s. That is when President Moi pulled him out of oblivion and dusted him up for the sustained political grooming that followed.

President Moi, whose grip on Kenya was meted through the ruling party KANU and its countrywide apparatus, identified Uhuru for Kiambu District (now county) chairmanship. From then on, it wasn’t lost on any political observer that Moi had grand ideas for Uhuru in Kenya’s political sphere.