Early days

Okiya Omtatah will not save you.

Let me explain.

Our political education seemed to have ended when Daniel Moi's Project was defeated in December 2002. Even after Mwai Kibaki and his acolytes conspired to not just perpetuate the Moi kleptocracy they inherited, but to supercharge it, we seemed to have given up on anything resembling civic mindedness and political education. Things came to a head in the 2005 constitutional referendum where even professors in the academy stated without irony or shame, "If Raila Odinga has read the draft constitution, who are we to read it for ourselves?" as we were shepherded in rejecting the draft Constitution.

Today, we are confronted with the desire in certain quarters to put Mr. Omtatah forward as Kenya's Sixth president in 2027. On the strength of his activism, especially the public interest litigation cases he has successfully prosecuted, Mr. Omtatah certainly has the approval of many Kenyans. His is not burdened by a history in which he was a full-fledged member of the Kanu eating classes or a beneficiary of the Kibaki lootocracy that robbed Kenyans of their second chance at political success. He was the thorn in UhuRuto's side, and his bona fides during the anti-BBI era are plain to see.

But we know very little about him and his leadership credentials. For sure, his successful election as a senator point to some of it, but the fact that he does not appear to have sponsored any Bills in the Senate is not encouraging. But more importantly, he has demonstrated that he prefers lone-wolf tactics, and refusing to participate in the messy horse-trading characteristic of legislative processes the world over. This may be a good thing, but I don't think so.

On one hand, he has stuck to his principles and has done everything in his power not to compromise them, even if means that he will not be credited with any legislative programme in the Senate. He can rely on the argument that legislating is the collective responsibility of ALL parliamentarians, and not just the sponsors of Bills. On the other hand, even if legislative is a collective responsibility, individual parliamentarians are expected to sponsor Bills to advance the issues their consciences and principles declare to be for the public good. Those Bills, if they receive the support of other parliamentarians, are proof that one has the capacity to work with even odious people in advancing a people-centred agenda. This does not appear to be Omtatah's style, hence his reliance on public interest litigation and his eschewing of legislative processes. It begs the question: why sit in Parliament if he is unwilling to act as a parliamentarian?

The second issue revolves around whom he has surrounded himself with in his political work. Little is known of his National Reconstruction Alliance Party of Kenya beyond the registration status with the Registrar of Political Parties and the annual reports by the Auditor-General on the finances of the party. Much is known of his stance on the Government's budget and human rights, but little is known about his positions on labour rights, universal access to education and healthcare, youth employment, environmental degradation, public investments, and dozens of other subjects for which a president must have more than a passing familiarity with. Moreover, little is know about what the people surrounding him think or have said about these issues.

Consequently, many Kenyans treat him as a tabula rasa, ascribing to him their own biases, without wondering at all if he will stand by them or pursue a different path. You can see this confusion manifesting itself in the many positions being adopted by people regarding his putative candidacy. There are those who support him regardless of what his positions are and are being mocked for their naiveté, and there those who wish to know more who are being shouted down for their scepticism.

The truth of the matter is that it is still too early to even conclude that he will be a presidential candidate in 2027. A great deal of work is still to be done to flesh out his political identity outside of anti-Finance-Bill litigations. Perhaps the establishment of the exploratory committee will provide greater insights as t who Okiya Omtatah the Politician actually is and whether that is a man Kenyans can vote for in 2027.