There’s a popular phrase among social circles in Kenya; “rudisha mkono” (return the favour) which is an unwritten rule that makes it rude for one to accept drinks from a friend without returning a similar favour.
Since independence, Kenya has witnessed politics of “rudisha mkono” which thrive purely on horse-trading among politicians and their main aim is to seek self-preservation.
After Kenya attained her independence in 1963 and Jomo Kenyatta became President, freedom fighters waited with lots of anxiety for Kenyatta to give them permission to reclaim Kenya’s land from the colonialists. Instead and contrary to the expectations of the freedom fighters, Kenyatta maid it clear that there were no freebies for anyone and told those who wanted “something for nothing” to go to Tanzania and China!
Unknown to the freedom fighters, Kenya’s independence was a “rudisha mkono” deal. It is believed that the colonialists let Kenya free under conditions that Kenyatta preserved their farms and protected their business interests.
And from Kenyatta, the “rudisha mkono” politics went on to the reign of Daniel Arap Moi. Moi is perhaps the president known for returning huge favours in the real sense of the word! Village elders leaving State House with loads of cash, raggedy youth transformed to millionaires overnight and struggling countryside politicians becoming star politicians at the national level are just a few elaborate tales of how Moi returned favours.
From the humble beginnings in Kurieng'wo village, Sacho division, Baringo District in Rift Valley and serving as a political apprentice under the reign of Kenyatta, Moi rose to the ranks of Kenya’s “professor of politics” after the latter’s death, thanks to politics of “rudisha mkono”.
Initially, the “rudisha mkono” politics were characterized by underhand deals but in 2002, they went a notch higher through Raila Odinga’s clarion call of “(Mwai) Kibaki Tosha”. Everyone was fed up with Moi’s and to a larger extant KANU’s rule. The opposition had had enough of Moi’s brutal ways of silencing dissent, manipulation of the constitution to ensure his longevity and his sly ways to destabilize the opposition.
In 2002, Moi was the common villain that everyone needed a piece of but without a general to lead them, the opposition would have flopped in its quest to dislodge KANU from power as had been witnessed in previous elections. It was then that Odinga made that call for the opposition to rally behind the then opposition leader Mwai Kibaki.
Those events in 2002 came to roost last week at Moi Stadium in Kisumu. After being ordained as a Luo elder, Kibaki was taken down the path of recent history in 2002 when a combatant Odinga with a good command of mob oratory and witty blarney “persuaded” the electorate that Kibaki was the best Presidential candidate to dislodge KANU from power then.
The ODM MPs present at the event took turns to remind Kibaki that without the “Kibaki Tosha” call by Odinga, the NARC Movement led by Kibaki, the late Kijana Wamalwa, Charity Ngilu and Prof George Saitoti among others would just have ended up as a group of no-hopers.
However, unlike the rest of the ODM henchmen who kept paragliding about what they wanted from Kibaki, Lands Minister James Orengo directly hit the ground with a thinly-veiled plea to Kibaki to “rudisha mkono” and endorse Odinga as the best Presidential Candidate in 2012/13 general elections since Odinga did him a huge favour in 2002 by endorsing him.
It’s no secret that Orengo was simply amplifying Odinga’s wishes by seeking the ODM leader’s endorsement from Kibaki. Over the years, Orengo has metamorphosed or retrogressed from a reforms activist to Odinga’s paperboy.
Whether ODM made a plea from a point of desperation due to Odinga’s waning support as projected through opinion polls or purely out of necessity, the Kenyan electorate have come of age and “rudisha mkono” politics are no longer acceptable and cannot be tolerated!
Due to “rudisha mkono” politics, Kenyans have always ended up with a raw deal in the frame of a non-reformist president, a closet dictator or a plunderer! Politicians have over the years capitalized on horse-trading to sail through without the remotest attempt to even rehash their old campaign methods!
Kenyans should be wary of politics of horse-trading. It’s solely the role of the electorate to decide whether a candidate is suitable or not and political endorsements have no room in the post new constitution Kenya.
The new constitution, in Chapter Nine’s Procedure at Presidential Election, lays it down in the simplest way even for the most ignorant politician. “A candidate shall be declared elected as President if the candidate receives: more than half of all the votes cast in the election; and at least 25 percent of the votes in each of more than half of the counties!”
Nowhere in the new law does it assure that a candidate shall be president if he/she has the popular endorsement or has acquired a quid pro quo deal with an ally! As one person said, Kenyans are bright enough and they reserve the sole right to endorse a candidate through the power of the ballot!
