Ruto ought not chest thump when Raila's spirit is with us

In the Lake Basin cultures of East Africa, the shadow of the dead is believed to remain in the place where they died, until the day his relatives go to fetch it. And it can only be fetched after the dead has been buried. Between the burial and that day, we are cautious with what we say about our glorious departed. We especially guard against social faux pas. 

Has President William Ruto been making social faux pas in his celebratory triumphalism as he embarks on his race to reclaim office in 2027? This triumphalism can be confounding. It speaks of excessive obsession with the self, and fundamental loss of focus on his government’s raison d’etre. It speaks more, instead, of focus on raison d’etat. 

Why do governments exist, and what should they do, now that they exist? More to the point, why does a country need a President and a cabinet? What is the focus of the Kenya Kwanza elite?  Raison d’etre, speaks to why you exist or, in this case, why Kenya’s should have, and be led by, this  government.

Raison d’etat, on the other hand, speaks to things they do that are purely political. That is to say, purely political stuff, or actions, that do not add value to the life of the Kenyan nation. This is especially so in actions or statements that are made in the absence of justice, honesty and openness. Such statements are made without due sensitivity to their appropriateness. 

You see, President Ruto and his senior state officials; from the Deputy President, Kithure Kindiki to Prime Cabinet Secretary, Musalia Mudavadi; and from National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang’ula to his Senate counterpart, Amason Kingi; are out there in early campaigns for the 2027 presidential contest.

Also on board are Cabinet Secretaries Hassan Joho, John Mbadi, and Opiyo Wandayi. In the process, things that should never be said are being said. 

The tone and messaging is absolutist and triumphalist to the point of recklessness. President Ruto may go to Malava in Kakamega County, for example. He will purport to be launching a road that he launched sometime back.

Clearly, he has not come to launch a road, for a road can only be launched so many times. But he had to come, and the people who work for him had to find some good excuse for the visit.  He is not supposed to look like a 2027 presidential aspirant, but as a working elected president. 

After moments of hemming and hawing about “development, roads and empowerment,” he eventually brings out what has brought him. He has come to ask for 2027 votes. An impending by-election in this area serves as good springboard for this message. He says a number of innocuous things that are neither here nor there. Then comes the bombshell, raw and undistilled. It is triumphalist and gleeful as to be injurious to the ears that hear and to the sensibilities of persons of goodwill.

Kenya’s President, in celebratory cadence, tells the world that the only person he used to worry about with regard to elections was Raila Odinga. But now Odinga is not there, he states gleefully. Accordingly, he will white-wash the Opposition in 2027. He promises to defeat them very early in the election morning. Beating them in the morning is far and square. Political opponents are best off being whitewashed. And the earlier in the morning you beat them, the better. 

But what is this gleeful triumph over the absence of Odinga? So, Odinga is not around. The President of Kenya heaves a sign of relief. In the event that you have forgotten, Odinga has not gone on pilgrimage to Israel. Nor has he gone to work for the African Union. He is in permanent rest. This government used to say that someday he would be consigned to permanent rest where he now rests. 

In the Lake Victoria Basin, where we come from, such triumphalism can be interpreted very narrowly, and it is already being narrowly interpreted.

Is the person in question at this time celebrating his expected victory in 2027, or is he celebrating the fact that Odinga, erstwhile his nemesis, is no longer a thorn in his political flesh? 

The grass on Odinga’s grave has not sprouted. In the Lake Basin where we come from we are still very measured in what we say about him.

In our belief system, his spirit is still hovering between this world and the next.

It shall remain that way until the day we return to India, where he gave up the ghost, to fetch his shadow.