- Book – ‘Patriotism and Visionary Leadership – for a stable and prosperous Kenya.’
- Author – Muriithi Kiyu
- Pages – 321
- Reviewer – Tony Mochama
“No legal instrument or institution can cure mistrust,” writes Dr Murithi Kiyu on page 296 of his book, “for as long as Kenyan politicians remain selfish, corrupt and untrustworthy.”
One headline (‘Magnificent Duo’) in a local newspaper brings Dr. Kiyu’s point home with force. It reads: “At a time when independent institutions are weakened and Parliament appears increasingly aligned with the Executive, Auditor General Nancy Gathungu and Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang’o have remained unwavering public watchdogs, championing accountability in the use of public resources …”
This at a time when State entities have withdrawn Ksh1.3 trillion in an unprocedural and therefore unpatriotic manner through Treasury in the last seven months of August 2024 through February 2025, as per another local Sunday newspaper recently.
So, what is this patriotism, and what is the visionary leadership we need in Kenya?
Dr. Muriithi Kiyu, a political science scholar and highly experienced consultant in Strategic Policy, Governance, Foreign Relations and Political Risk Management attempts to answer this question in his 321-page book. In the introduction, Dr. Muriithi Kiyu correctly identifies Kenya’s current struggle as one for economic emancipation with “most citizens existing in the margins jostle to live one day at a time …”
It is true that our politicians seek office mostly for the primitive purpose of self -aggrandisement, and thereafter think about perpetual survival in office while the “electorate, despite repeated disappointments, keeps entrusting its hopes and aspirations to the same leaders in every electoral cycle.”
Indeed, when one looks even at the top of the forest, even after quarter a century, it is still exactly the same monkeys – Raila, Ruto, Mudavadi, Musyoka, Kenyatta – among familiar others who were jumping between the political branches of the leadership in 2000 AD, and are still doing it with ‘monkey-branching’ mergers in 2025 A.D.
In the background of our political culture, the author gives a credible account of how the East/West Cold War ideology of the 1960s until 1990 allowed that first generation of African leaders to be dictators without accountability as their proxies. He mentions how as long as one was ‘Capitalist,’ they indulged even great kleptocrats like Mobutu Sese Seko in the 1960s through to the mid-1990s, and how foreign interests are still in play (under Tshikedi) in the current Democratic Republic of Congo.
“If you are against these Western interests,” Dr. Kiyu says in the book, giving the example of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi of Libya, “they will train, finance and weaponize ‘local rebels’ to overthrow your regime …”
I especially liked his examination of our discriminatory economic system with its ‘tenderpreneurs’ which Kiyu calls “neo-patriarchal well-connected networks” and how MSMEs (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) here are ‘sedatives for the masses.’
He correctly finds fault with how ‘macro-economics’ are used to measure our economic growth (Kenya’s economy supposedly expanded 5% in 2024, lol), with no regard for microeconomics, where a majority of citizens feel the pinch of coin.
“The State System siphons off large amounts of cash from the domestic economy and stashes it in offshore accounts (we saw this exposed a few years ago with the Panama Papers), and yet if this (corrupt) money was used creatively in productive sectors, there would be less demand for FDIs (Foreign Direct Investments), developmental aid and loans.”
But it is in chapter five, after the famous Frank Luntz quote that a “political party should be defined by what it stands for, and not by what it stands against” that the train begins to go off the rails a bit in the book.
Dr. Muriithi asserts that the Opposition in Kenya was out to ‘derail’ the government through its rejection of the ‘Wako Draft’ as revenge for the ‘rejected’ infamous ‘MOU’ on post-KANU power-sharing, and doesn’t seem to realise that the referendum was really a pre-screening power test of the 2007 General Elections, by political partners irrevocably split.
He blames the Opposition for the 2007 PEV ‘bloodbath’ and says it served to ‘legitimise violence’ in future elections like the 2017 one, without once addressing the issue of the rigging of elections as a fundamental negation of democracy, with the tired trope of violence directed to ‘ethnicities of higher economic status’ and a Moiesque ‘citizens committed to peace are the reason Kenya didn’t burn in 2017.’
There is a lengthy part of the book dedicated to the Raila Boycott of the 2017 elections, after the favourable Supreme Court ruling, as admonishable by the West; and how Raila swore himself in on January 30th, 2018, at Uhuru Park as a prelude to anarchy, and how hard the US government came down on the man on February 11, 2018, in the person of Ambassador Robert Godec.
Life After Elections
So that the (in) famous Uhuru-Raila handshake of March 9th, 2018, seems even on the page to come as a shocking surprise to the author, who acknowledges that it “makes people betrayed,” and yet he himself earlier did say that our politicians “view political parties as vessels to get to power, and not with ideology.”
Indeed, this may explain the rather puzzling gap, for a book published in 2024, that there is nothing more on that ‘Uhuru-Raila’ partnership right up to the 2022 presidential elections – the ‘muthamaki’ endorsed the ‘musamaki’ – and so that cannot be borne talking about, let alone archiving it in a book about patriotism.
Still, the book then picks up and moves on, as the author acknowledges that there is “life after elections.”
On visionary leadership, Dr. Kiya says visionless leaders are obsessed with populism.
Raila Odinga would agree, having come once more into State largesse through his recent (latest) handshake with UDA’s President Ruto, that will see the ODM party get plum positions in a mongrel government – so can we still say this is “visionary leadership” or the politics of survival by one Ruto? Is ‘Baba’ even still a patriot – or is this latest move just stark selfish interests by the ‘Tinga’? Time will tell.
On visionary leadership, Dr. Kiya says visionless leaders are obsessed with “populism”, and keep their followers busy with ceaseless, meaningless “engagements such as public rallies, televised or podcasted talk shows, impromptu roadside stops, meet-the-people tours, fundraisers, funerals and religious functions;” whilst a visionary leader “sees the invisible so as to sometimes seem insane.”
Ethnic Kingpins
The two descriptions above could as well apply to the incumbent and one Wajackoya in the last election in 2022. Dr. Kiyu argues that “devolution should be at the focal point of national development,” something echoed by TV 47’s Eval Ruga who presents a midweek TV show purely devoted to devolution, as she says that’s “where the people are.”
As we await the Visionary messiah, it would seem to this reviewer that Kenya would settle now for the practical maestro of governance – A Mister (or even Miss) Fix It, who can manage a country; and get the economy of the country going.
“Ethnic kingpins rule the roost,” Dr. Muriithi Kivu says, “and minority (tribes) are not critical actors in the political equation (of Kenya)” – but with a 15 million basketful of Gen Z voters in the 18 – 30 bracket by 2027, many of them demanding for a leader whose ‘word is bond’ when it comes to fixing the system, someone of sterling performance record like Dr. Fred Matiang’i may stand a once-in-a-lifetime chance at getting to the House on the Hill, regardless of ethnicity.
Mochama is the writer of ‘Political Party after Party: The reality of political power in Kenya 1960 – 2020’ which was commissioned by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung. email: tonyadamske@gmail.com
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