Former Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i addresses members of the public at Gusii Stadium, Kisii County on May 2, 2025.
Sometimes one feels sorry for political pugilists in the current mudfest. Some of them are the hungriest, most ambitious Kenyans alive - and Kenyans are a pretty ambitious lot - and they are just not necessarily ambitious for the country, but for themselves.
The more they achieve, the bigger their ambitions become. They are like an animal that devours a big prey at the end of which they feel twice as hungry as they did at the outset.
Some of them wanted power, badly, but if they have it, they want to keep it, probably at all costs. They will not be satisfied unless they keep it, and there is no guarantee that they will be satisfied if they do. Maybe they wanted great wealth, now after acquiring it, they want more.
The two-way descent into personal attacks, abuse and body shaming is born of great frustration and anger as the politicians apply the brakes on each other’s ambitions. I suspect some of them have glanced over the horizon and realised that the one thing they crave most – more – could be slipping away from their fingers.
And for such ambitious people, there is no worse fate. They don’t strike me like the type that is content to take a break, go to Makandune, read a poem, contemplate a sunset, and, perhaps of a bad day, run away from a snake. They want to be at the centre of the action and they are in each other’s way.
If opposition leaders are brainless, idealess, family-less, unfaithful to their wives and terrible gluttons whose stomachs are bursting out of their shirts, why is the President wasting his valuable time tearing into them?
If you are walking through your small farm, you will rarely notice the goats and the chicken. But the big bulls, the ones that can promote you to glory with the fling of their neck, your eye never wanders from their horns, even when you are stroking them and calling them nice Maasai nicknames. The President is going for the big bulls. Having a big stomach, or being heavy, is probably a disqualifying factor in America, but not in Africa.
My colleague Mr Kirimi, with whom I taught in Naari Secondary School more than 20 years ago was a great student of local politics, particularly The King of Meru, Johnstone Harvester Angaine. He told us about Mr Angaine, a massive man in height and weight, going to see the doctor who instructed him to lose weight at once, if he wanted to get better.
Mr Angaine was outraged. How can a great leader be thin? “I want,” he told his henchmen later as he devoured a goat, “when they carry me to the grave to know that they are carrying a nchamba (great leader), not a puppy”.
Not all of us are born slim and tall; not all of us are family men, there are those who choose solitude. Not every leader is fecund, not all men are gifted with fidelity to their wives. Some great leaders are philanderers and drunks. Hitler was ascetic, almost asexual. And he was a monster. It is better to judge leaders by their relevant qualities, not just a blanket condemnation on the basis of singular weaknesses.
You can be a good leader and have no clue about the price of diapers. There are many men in this land who are vastly knowledgeable about diapers and clueless about leadership.
Dr Fred Matiang’i is a pretty good leader and public servant, in my view. His presumed weight has had no impact on his ability to lead and serve. I have a feeling that even if Dr Matiang’i had a six-pack, he would still be big. Some men are heavyset, they are built big. Some men are slim and tall, they are built thin.
In traditional Africa, there is a correlation between power on the one hand, silence and stillness on the other. The ideal African king is a sphinx, he neither speaks nor moves. His every sound, his every movement, is an earthquake. That is power.
A leader is a mirror, his behaviour reflects instructions to society – do as I do. If a leader is abusive and intolerant, he permits society to mirror exactly the same conduct.
This world, I suppose, is awash with great leaders who were, alas, rejected by their people. Inevitably it is also awash with mediocre leaders – who had thought too highly of themselves – who met the safe fate. Such is the way of the world.
The purpose of leadership is to empower, unite, inspire, guide even those who dislike you. The commonest thug can swat down a rival, it is the easiest of things. Leading takes wisdom, courage and some generosity of spirit.
In the inimitable wisdom of Uasin Gishu Senator Jackson Mandago: "Siasa weka kwa lungs" (Keep politics in the lungs). If you take it too much to heart, your sun will set.
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Mr Mathiu is a communications consultant and farmer. [email protected]
