If you watched the video of former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua earlier in the week walking out of Karen Hospital, subdued, his face ashen with either ill-health or stress, the bags under his eyes heavy with lack of sleep, the one who once described himself as ‘chuma ya zamani’ (hardened steel) reduced to begging for his life and that of his family (which he claims are at risk), his weeping wife on his right and his crying sons behind him, you have to ask yourself: What is the currency of Kenyan politics? What is its coin? When you give in a political transaction, what should your expectation be in return?
I don’t think you should get all weepy and broken-hearted if you don’t get loyalty in reward. The reward for loyalty is nothing. When a politician uses you for a purpose, he does not expect to give anything in return, he will only give back as an investment for further use, if you have continued usefulness.
If your usefulness is at an end, as Mr Gachagua’s clearly is, he should be sophisticated enough not to wallow in the moment, to accept that he has been played masterfully, change his game, move on, invest in himself, improve his value and worth and wait to trade better in the next round.
Before I turned 55, I used to have a policy of travelling light in life. I wasn’t going to waste time, opportunity and effort going after the folks whom I thought had done me bad, just for the silly emotional satisfaction of revenge. Now that I’m 55, I don’t give a hoot about who did what. In other words I’m going through life without even hand luggage.
As a matter of fact I look forward to doing business with people who I’m certain are out to do me in, so that my guard is nailed to the rafters 100 per cent of the time and I can laser-focus on the transaction. It is not a forgiveness thing, it is priorities. I would recommend this approach to the political class.
To expect reciprocity, kindness or loyalty from a Kenyan politicians is not fair, it is like expecting the same of a coyote. They are just not capable of it.
They wake up in the morning, shower, wear their trousers and go to the office to play people. It is far much easier to have a contract specifying what they must do or lose their jobs.
Save the emotion for those who are able to feel it. If Mr Gachagua had insisted on a written contract like the other more seasoned politicians, he would not be broken-hearted today.
There are two lessons arising from this whole tear-drenched Gachagua. First, the Masada Complex-type, Samson Option strategy that people are romanticising where the former DP goes down with the government is a destructive pipe dream.
First of all, the regime has cauterised against any possible damage he might cause. By building an alliance with the Orange Democratic Movement, the government has marshalled numbers in Parliament and serious mobilisation capacity.
The former Deputy President, on the other hand, doesn’t even have a political party. What he is counting on is the support of his politically-savvy and populous region.
Since that region has serious political and economic interests, would it be reasonable to expect that the princes of the Mountain would risk their fortunes and influence in a Quixotic quest for “justice” for Mr Gachagua?
The nightmare scenario is if this becomes not a contest between two former political allies who have mistreated each other, but a fight between one tribe and the government or one tribe against all the rest.
There are those who will want to whip up ethnic sentiment in an attempt to ride on the waves of animosity. This is not useful.
I have seen complaints on social media that in his speech, President William Ruto appeared to downplay the role of the Mau Mau in the liberation struggle. Would the President attempt to rewrite history just to get at Mr Gachagua? I hope not.
The truth of the matter is that many folks, from all over the country, fought to free our country in their own ways.
But the Mau Mau did most of the fighting. It is their bloody rebellion that convinced the whole world against putting Kenya on a road similar to Rhodesia, even though we had as many settlers, perhaps even more opinionated about this being their country.
I ask myself: What outcome could Mr Gachagua be possibly fighting for? If, and it is a massive if, he is somehow reinstated, how would be serve in a government he accuses of repeatedly attempting to poison him and mistreating him for a whole year?
If, on the other hand, he merely wishes, for the record, that the right procedure be used to fire him, I suspect that they will just take him back to the Senate, cross-examine him mercilessly and impeach him all over again.
Mr Mathiu, a media consultant at Steward-Africa, is a former Editor-in-Chief of Nation Media Group. [email protected]
