PETER KENNETH: THE DIM STAR WHICH ALWAYS SHINES!You always heard of him, even when he is a nobody. For lack of a better cognitive word, I will call it star-quality.
Peter Kenneth is a name which is easily dropped when people discuss succession politics Kenya, be it merely for the Nairobi gubernatorial seat. In fact in 2013 he had two offered on a plate, home county Murang'a or Nairobi? ----Note I said 'merely' for Nairobi county's top political seat. For others, say like Evans Kidero, governor of Nairobi county is the summit. For Peter Kenneth, it was understood and instinctively recognized by all, that Nairobi county would be but a stepping stone to greater heights.
The mistake PK made was of course to delude himself he could walk on water, that is win the presidency straight in 2013 without picking a few dangerous scars in the bloody fields of Kenyan politics. But he was young enough to be allowed such run-away adolescent fantasies. Being beaten by Sonko's populism even as he had the bureaucratic support of the establishment, was a sledge-hammer lesson in the limitations of backroom machinations. Kenneth has since beaten even Mwai Kibaki's record on no comment.
Kenneth Matiba once said there is no fence Mwai Kibaki saw he didn't sit on. Angered a few years later, Matiba upgraded the earlier appraisal of Mwai to General Coward. Kibaki who had declared one couldn't cut down a Mugumo with a razor blade, was now himself running against KANU! (As the DP front man).
Of course Kibaki was persuaded by Established Gikuyu capital ---(organised in groups like the movers of the chequered if
legendary Transcentury)---- he was the right man to take care of the business at hand. Specifically it was Njenga Karume who put a knife to his throat to run. (For knife to throat you can also read put his money where his mouth was: funded the DP party).
I have never known, nor heard of any opinion PK held. Neither have I known nor heard of anybody PK riled enough to remember it the next day. That now, in confrontational but stalemated situation as we now venture, is the perfect personification of the natural compromise candidate. He is anything to anybody. He's Muslim voter friendly; he is Christian voter puller; he is muthungu, he is African he is muindi; he is Kikuyu but antagonises neither Luhya nor Luo, Kalenjin nor Giriama. He does not elicit much passion from any sector, but there is a hint of technical competence in him which turns the odds of rational calculations, both self and national interest, in his favour.
That is the star quality of Peter Kenneth for this historical moment. That is why he is essentially a political nobody, but if he makes an appearance anywhere where there are bigger wigs, he is the topic of town.
I remember there was a time PK attended a meeting with DP William Ruto. Ruto invited him to speak. Up went the buzz. If Ruto's choice for running mate were to come from Mount Kenya, it was as much as settled ----if PK wasn't going to be his silly young self and go it alone once again.
Mount Kenya needs a man to take care of the business. But a man who is an easy compromise candidate in charged Kenya. A seemingly weak man but who, behind the scenes, can be fortified by bureaucratic aces and samurai cogs with a historical memory of the wield of state power. ---Kenyatta, Kibaki, Kenyatta.
The only question churning the stomach of mount Kenya is this: William Ruto, like in those ancient Shogun and Daimyo power games of Japan, has
hostages to bring to a parley or dispatch of in the proven methods. Is Gideon Moi in, enough appeasement to save the Gikuyu Diaspora in the Rift?
No, it is not that established Gikuyu capital has a care for the Gikuyu Diaspora in the Rift, it is just that the ensuing chaos could cost them their estates, an internal overthrow. So it is self survival at work.
PK is the nobody everybody knows is somebody. Now it is upon PK to know who he really is, and let himself emerge. But the carpets are already dusted, waiting to be rolled out for him. If he dares be himself.
Topic: PK emerges as favorite Uhuru successor (Read 3433 times)