Needed: Kenya's Moment of Grace

The following article originally appeared in The Star.

A moment of grace: this was not a story expected to provide much beyond obvious mirth and hilarity on the one hand, and horror and embarrassment on the other. However, from the most unlikely source of Grace Mugabe, perhaps we can draw a lesson or two about how to deal with entrenched and ossified power?

For those still in the dark: it was widely reported that Grace Mugabe, the wife of 86-year old Zimbabwean president Robert, has been in secret tryst with Gideon Gono, the head of the central bank, for the last five years. Apparently, this is not the first time that Grace, who is 41 years Mugabe’s junior, has had a paramour. Ouch! On the heels of similar stories from the Kraal of the Swazi king Mswati and the presidential mansions of Jacob Zuma, the limping omnipotence of the entrenched patriarchy in Southern Africa has been exposed.

What lessons for Kenya? Surely it is not that wives have a license to conduct illicit romances under the noses of their husbands; although the case has been made that if the latter are already liberally engaged in open-tendering and multi-sourcing in the romance department, then this is also level ground for the exercise of equal opportunity. The lesson, rather, may be about how to deal with our longstanding political husbands and their successors.

It is these husbands who had attempted to derail the unveiling of a new constitution providing all manner of twisted excuse to derail the birth of a new Kenya. They offered us various red-herrings in their interpretation around Kadhis Courts, abortion, land, devolution and so on to deflect attention to the real governance gains that are contained in the new constitution. Others, who are politically lily-livered, tried to be all things to all people and were Green during the day and Red by night. All these political husbands are clearly sated with the old order and wanted the status quo to continue. Kenyans, by a large majority, said YES: this was a moment of grace.

On promulgation day, in strutted Sudan’s President Omar Al Bashir, indicted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, to attend the fete. The resulting ruckus would indicate that most Kenyans were bemused by his presence. Our political husbands, again, tried to make hay by reeling out arguments about good neighborliness and our commitment to the African Union which has decided not to cooperate with the ICC on the Bashir matter. On good neighborliness—if your neighbor is a wife-beater, are you expected to roll out the red carpet for him? The question, thus, remaining is about who, between the ICC and the AU, Kenyans shall choose as our political husband.

Obviously, going by all this talk of hosting Bashir again during the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) talks, those calling the shots favor the AU. The Kenya Chapter of the International Commission of Jurists, in response, sought an arrest warrant should this become the eventuality. In addition, the ICC itself has called on Kenya to arrest President Bashir, should he visit. This divergence calls for a moment of grace.

It is recalled that William Ruto had to be recently sidelined by the president and prime minister when he insisted on carrying on with his ministerial duties in the wake of criminal charges, related to corruption, being preferred against him. Bethuel Kiplagat remains in office as the Chair of the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission even when it is readily apparent that his credibility is strangulating the institution. Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula and Permanent Secretary Thuita Mwangi experienced their moment of grace this past week and “stepped aside” to allow for independent investigations around the reported scam in the procurement and disposal of Kenyan embassy property abroad; most notably in Japan. After first resisting, Wetangula and Mwangi were finally prevailed upon to cuckold that age-old political husband called impunity. It is hoped that this will signal the beginning of a new culture where those who have credible allegations leveled against them find the grace to step aside to facilitate impartial investigations.

What was interesting in the case of Wetangula was the company he was in when he announced his departure: Noah Wekesa, Soita Shitanda, and David Eseli among others flanked the beleaguered minister. Was the saga around the sale and purchase of embassies abroad a Western Kenya issue? Similarly, was the motion of censure against Amos Kimunya around the underhanded sale of the Laico Regency a Central Kenya issue? Was the debate around the illegal reappointment of Aaron Ringera to the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission a GEMA issue? Is the debate around the Mau Forest a Kalenjin issue? Is the ICC only targeting some communities as recently alleged by leaders from the Kikuyu and Nandi communities? Why is Joseph Kosgey—appointed unilaterally by Industrialization Minister Henry Kosgey—serving as the managing director of the Kenya Bureau of Standards while he only managed to emerge forth in the interviews for the job? Tribalism remains a particularly unsavory political husband for which the country needs an uplifting moment of grace.

Of course, moments of grace are fraught with deadly risk. Some said to have been secretly romantically linked to Grace Mugabe have come to grief and others have fled in the face of great peril. A Zimbabwean intelligence official is reported to have noted: “Once he (Mugabe) hears something like that, I think someone will go to meet God.” Gono’s fate does not look very promising.

But, on the other hand, the advantages, benefits and dividends that attend a moment of grace can also be immensely emancipating. Imagine a Kenya in which impunity, tribalism, and corruption will be political cuckolds?