Tuju exit from Jubilee Party lamenting the “staying power” of tribalism is to me the most interesting.
It has made me take yet another look at tribalism. This thing has many faces!
Tuju, a Luo who abandoned his ethnic group and picked the Kikuyu side of politics since 2002 has not much to say about the success of his sojourn.
His conclusion is that it was a doomed voyage, though he says he it is still good to be ‘naive like our Gen Zs’.
If you take a look at the jobs he was trusted with, the periods he was trusted with those jobs, the reward for his labour and the practical contribution to the nation (which I assume includes the world his own tribesmen occupied); what do you see?
Tuju was Foreign Affairs Minister in the post-Kibaki/Raila fallout. He had demonstrated great courage, staying staunchly behind President Kibaki at a time of Luo exit.
To give the devil his due, in the cabinet reshuffle following 2005 referendum defeat; it can be said this was a great appointment, for Tuju had taken a grave gamble.
In the years leading to 2007, Tuju never waivered, in the end, choosing to defend his Rarieda seat on Kibaki’s PNU Party, and, of course; he was clobbered out.
What was curious was that Kibaki never nominated Tuju back to parliament; and eventually back to the cabinet. Tuju risked it all, for nothing.
On the ODM side, the closest comparison was Joe Nyaga, the brother to Norman Nyaga.
Despite his brother being a PNU higher-up who had been accused of, or, alleged to have assassinated Dr. Odhiambo Mbai, Joe Nyaga had somehow joined ODM Party and became a PENTAGON member. He lost his election in the GEMA world but ODM nominated him to parliament and made him Minister; with the formation of the Grand Coalition government.
By 2013, Joe was among those who had abandoned ODM, alongside all the other Pentagon Members, except Odinga.
Tuju, on the other hand, transitioned with the Kibaki to support Uhuru. He never crossed back to the Luo. Just as he had been the most prominent Luo who stuck with Kibaki, he was still the most prominent Luo who backed Uhuru. Rare consistency.
Yet, again, the reward never matched the sacrifice.
Tuju was always handy in efforts to capture or retain power.
His skills — whatever they were — appear largely in the formation and management of the political parties that won/rigged power, but in the exercise of that power, he was always carefully carted away.
Tuju’s resignation letter reminds me of Prof. Bethwel Ogot’s revisiting Raila Odinga’s “Flame of Freedom”, and finding that Odinga has “blanked out” 1982.
Why did project “tribalism is stupid” not succeed?
In Kenya, either the nation builds you up or the tribe builds you up.
Once Tuju had abandoned the tribe, it was the responsibility of the nation to build him up and the nation failed.
Tuju tells Uhuru….“We dared to dream and to be naive in the Kenyan political arena that we could go beyond tribe”.
The problem here is that Tuju is still being delusional.
It is only him who was dreaming. Uhuru, and Kibaki before him; never dreamt a single day that they would go beyond tribe.
Tuju was always willing to hand over power. Tuju worked hard to defeat ODM/Raila. Which task he did succeed. Thrice.
But once ODM had been defeated, did Tuju achieve victory of the post-tribal Kenya?
By the time Tuju returned to now help put ODM/Raila Odinga to power; can he say he recieved the same support from the same ‘team Kenya’ that he’d got when putting Kibaki back to power in 2007, then Uhuru in two elections?
Tuju would have been the alternative the Luo looked upto when their mainstream leaders were scorning power; but was he up there?
If not, where was he and why? What stopped Kibaki from nominating and re-appointing Tuju back to cabinet after 2007? What stopped Uhuru from appointing Tuju to the cabinet in 2013?
And when he finally did, what portfolio did he give him? With what influence? With what power? Why was Tuju important at party machine, but not government?
I will continue to thank the people who organized the “Gen Z movement” for disrupting something so evil, without even knowing.
Ahsanteni kwa kubadilisha wapishi!
