Let
the message go forth that the good people of Nairobi are not yet
convinced that the likes of Evans Kidero and Jimnah Mbaru have our
interests at heart. The intellectual bellwethers of the CORD and
Jubiliee alliances may have built impressive résumés, and they may have
built up industrial and financial empires to rival the best of the best
on the African continent, but their understanding of the needs of the
ordinary Nairobian leaves a bad taste in our mouths. On Sunday, Dr
Kidero had a golden opportunity to introduce himself to the wider
Nairobi electorate, not just the die-hard Raila fanatics of the Orange
Democratic Party. Invited together with the doyen of Embakasi, Ferdinand
Waititu, on Citizen TV, he spent the entire programme behaving like an
intellectual boor, attempting to needle Mr Waititu into coming across
like his alleged thuggish self.
Dr Kidero represents the worst of the elitism inherent in Kenyan high society. He believes that his academic and financial exploits place him over and above the men of the people who spend their entire political careers in the mud and filth of Nairobi's various "informal settlements". It was all that Dr Kidero could do not to sneer at what he clearly saw as his intellectual inferior. It may all have been posturing and that Dr Kidero is not this obnoxious in person, but given that politics is a game of optics, even the intellectuals he was attempting to communicate with were left feeling that he was not possibly the best candidate for Nairobi's governor's office.
The wider question of the suitability of a "man like Ferdinand Waititu" to occupy the office of the governor was not properly addressed and is yet to be addressed in a serious fashion. Many look to the public antics of the former Embakasi MP and refuse to see that his style of leadership is effective in that he has managed to provide many of the things the men and women who sent him to Parliament needed. The most important thing that Mr Waititu did was to give his constituents a consistent ear. In this he emulated his predecessor-but-one the indefatigable-unto-death David Mwenje. Mr Waititu, just as the late Mr Mwenje, went to ridiculous lengths to represent the interests of the Embakasi constituents who elected them. Indeed, both have been guests of the state for brief periods in their zeal for fighting for the interests of the residents of Embakasi. Indeed, Mr Waititu proudly reminded both Dr Kidero and Citizen TV interviewer, Julie Gichuru, that under his watch not only have schools been constructed to help educate the children in his constituency, but that hundreds of acres of public land had been rescued from the greedy hands of grabbers.
In fact, when it comes to the question of integrity in public life, the only black mark that seems to be made against Mr Waititu concerns his constant run-ins with the police. No one has been able to demonstrate that Mr Waititu, even when he served as a councillor on the City Council of Nairobi, had been involved with graft, despite the fact that the City Council and Mwai Kibaki's two administrations have been riven with great corruption. In contrast, while Dr Kidero has impressive credentials, and has managed billions of shillings without money disappearing under his watch, he was also the man in charge when tens of thousands of Kenyans were displaced from the Tana Delta in order to make way for a sugar project that would not, according the most reliable reports, raise the standard of living for the displaced Kenyans. If his ideas of development and progress are grand projects that wish to sweep under the carpet the lives of thousands of Nairobians, destroy them without a second thought, then perhaps it is right and just that he faces Ferdinand Waititu for the post of Governor on the fourth of March.
Mr Waititu is arguably one of the least polished members of the Tenth Parliament, a distinction that may only be rivalled by the antics of the former Makadara MP Gidion "Mike Sonko" Mbuvi. Despite his gauche ways and utter lack of polish or sophistication, Mr Waititu has achieved more for the people he represents than all the government White Papers published since the 1960s. Dr Kidero, on the other hand, has not had such a spotless career as his boosters would have us believe. The Tana Delta project is just one of the projects that he has overseen that has benefited an impersonal entity like a corporation but destroyed the lives and livelihoods of the poor and marginalised, of whom there are numerous in the City of Nairobi. Indeed, they form over 60% of Nairobi's population. Given a choice between the devil in Waititu whom we know and the angel in Kidero whom we don't, millions of Nairobians would rather go with the former Embakasi legislator. He is after all popularly known by the peoples of Embakasi as Baba Yao!
Dr Kidero represents the worst of the elitism inherent in Kenyan high society. He believes that his academic and financial exploits place him over and above the men of the people who spend their entire political careers in the mud and filth of Nairobi's various "informal settlements". It was all that Dr Kidero could do not to sneer at what he clearly saw as his intellectual inferior. It may all have been posturing and that Dr Kidero is not this obnoxious in person, but given that politics is a game of optics, even the intellectuals he was attempting to communicate with were left feeling that he was not possibly the best candidate for Nairobi's governor's office.
The wider question of the suitability of a "man like Ferdinand Waititu" to occupy the office of the governor was not properly addressed and is yet to be addressed in a serious fashion. Many look to the public antics of the former Embakasi MP and refuse to see that his style of leadership is effective in that he has managed to provide many of the things the men and women who sent him to Parliament needed. The most important thing that Mr Waititu did was to give his constituents a consistent ear. In this he emulated his predecessor-but-one the indefatigable-unto-death David Mwenje. Mr Waititu, just as the late Mr Mwenje, went to ridiculous lengths to represent the interests of the Embakasi constituents who elected them. Indeed, both have been guests of the state for brief periods in their zeal for fighting for the interests of the residents of Embakasi. Indeed, Mr Waititu proudly reminded both Dr Kidero and Citizen TV interviewer, Julie Gichuru, that under his watch not only have schools been constructed to help educate the children in his constituency, but that hundreds of acres of public land had been rescued from the greedy hands of grabbers.
In fact, when it comes to the question of integrity in public life, the only black mark that seems to be made against Mr Waititu concerns his constant run-ins with the police. No one has been able to demonstrate that Mr Waititu, even when he served as a councillor on the City Council of Nairobi, had been involved with graft, despite the fact that the City Council and Mwai Kibaki's two administrations have been riven with great corruption. In contrast, while Dr Kidero has impressive credentials, and has managed billions of shillings without money disappearing under his watch, he was also the man in charge when tens of thousands of Kenyans were displaced from the Tana Delta in order to make way for a sugar project that would not, according the most reliable reports, raise the standard of living for the displaced Kenyans. If his ideas of development and progress are grand projects that wish to sweep under the carpet the lives of thousands of Nairobians, destroy them without a second thought, then perhaps it is right and just that he faces Ferdinand Waititu for the post of Governor on the fourth of March.
Mr Waititu is arguably one of the least polished members of the Tenth Parliament, a distinction that may only be rivalled by the antics of the former Makadara MP Gidion "Mike Sonko" Mbuvi. Despite his gauche ways and utter lack of polish or sophistication, Mr Waititu has achieved more for the people he represents than all the government White Papers published since the 1960s. Dr Kidero, on the other hand, has not had such a spotless career as his boosters would have us believe. The Tana Delta project is just one of the projects that he has overseen that has benefited an impersonal entity like a corporation but destroyed the lives and livelihoods of the poor and marginalised, of whom there are numerous in the City of Nairobi. Indeed, they form over 60% of Nairobi's population. Given a choice between the devil in Waititu whom we know and the angel in Kidero whom we don't, millions of Nairobians would rather go with the former Embakasi legislator. He is after all popularly known by the peoples of Embakasi as Baba Yao!
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