Forces behind Justin Muturi’s coronation

National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi, a good and decent man, is being led by the nose. Despite high office as one of the troika each heading an arm of government — others being President Kenyatta atop the Executive and newly-appointed Chief Justice Martha Koome — the Speaker comes across as a humble gentleman who hasn’t been infected by the hubris that catches many in such positions.

As Speaker of the National Assembly, Mr Muturi has performed reasonably well in a low-key but firm style, devoid of the blatant partisanship and bias often demanded of those who owe their role to a political patron.

Over the years, I’ve had the pleasure to interact extensively with the Speaker in the many official engagements between media representatives and Parliament. Even where we have agreed to disagree, Mr Muturi has always been polite and considerate.

Instead of finger-wagging and histrionics, more often from him have been kind words of advice of how best we can achieve our objectives through friendly MPs and the House Committee system rather than only shouting from the rooftops.

And at the evening ‘Any Other Business’ gatherings, he can always be relied upon to provide genial company and candid, free-spirited discussion on national issues.

Ruthless buccaneer

In other words, Mr Muturi is not your typical Kenyan politician. This is not to say he’s not ambitious or that he can’t mix it up with the best or worst of them. It was not by accident or chance that he was elected MP for Siakago at a 1999 by-election and re-elected to seek out a full term in 2002. 

Neither was it merely a favour when he rose to National Assembly Speaker on President Kenyatta’s election in 2013.

Still, one doesn’t see in Mr Muturi an ethnic kingpin. He’s not cut from the material of the typical Kenyan politician who seeks to use tribe as a path to power. He doesn’t resemble the ruthless buccaneer who will employ wealth, brute force and intimidation to rise to supremacy within an ethnic grouping.

That’s why I refuse to believe that Mr Muturi is the author of his own bid for ‘spokesman’ of the populous Mt Kenya community. 

Throughout the journey culminating in his contested enthronement as leader of the Gikuyu, Embu and Meru (Gema) people at the Mukurwe wa Nyagathanga shrine in Murang’a County last Saturday, Mr Muturi never looked like the star in his show.

Everything suggests he’s just a bit player, and the very fact that it’s President Kenyatta’s cousin Kung’u Muigai emerging as producer, director and scriptwriter is quite revealing.

The President has been reduced to a lame duck on losing loyalty of his Central Kenya constituency to Deputy President William Ruto and witnessing efforts to direct the presidential succession via the Building Bridges Initiative blowing up in his face.

In such a scenario, there are many family members and power brokers around the presidency who cannot contemplate a Kenya where they are not at the centre of power and its attendant benefits.

The power vacuum in the Mount Kenya region even before President Kenyatta serves out his final term presents a nightmare for such characters.

One suspects that is why Mr Muturi has been fronted. At the appropriate moment, the real force behind his enthronement will emerge and the Speaker will be expected to gratefully step aside.

Paramount chiefs

For now, Mr Muturi has a difficult task gaining acceptance in a role thrust on him. For one, the fellows pushing him to the front are hardly acknowledged leaders of the community, merely among the numerous self-appointed claimants to non-existent positions. Secondly, the Mt Kenya communities have never paid blind obeisance to paramount chiefs.

It remains to be seen what role Mr Muturi plays in coming weeks and months. It is generally agreed that it would be greedy for Mt Kenya to front a presidential candidate next year, in which case Mr Muturi’s role will be to negotiate for the community a prominent place at the table from the aspirant that wants support of President Kenyatta’s Jubilee faction, be it BBI partner Raila Odinga or the constellation around Mr Musalia Mudavadi. 

Deputy President Ruto already has his own Mt Kenya claimants for deputy in fellows such as Kithure Kindiki, Moses Kuria and Mwangi Kiunjuri. Now, nowhere is it written that Mt Kenya must provide Number Two, if not Number One.

Instead of merely angling for position in the post-Kenyatta regime, Mr Muturi and those pushing him can serve Kenya better if they helped nurture a political culture where ideology and policy takes precedence over ethnic jostling.

[email protected]; @MachariaGaitho