Commentary (by Oscar Obonyo) - ‘Young Turks’ unite again

Ref: http://www.eastandard.net/news/?id=1143983355

Published on March 16, 2008, 12:00 am

By Oscar Obonyo

During the agitation for multi-party democracy, in the 1990s, a group of young professionals took the political scene by storm. In the years that followed, they went their separate ways but they are now together again.

Many must be awed by Prime Minister-designate, Mr Raila Odinga’s recent lunch dates with hitherto political sworn enemies, Ms Martha Karua and Mr Amos Kimunya.

The Cabinet ministers, who are close allies of President Kibaki, have viciously fought Raila politically and are perceived to have played a crucial role — lawfully or otherwise — in tilting the scales against him in the December presidential polls.

Then there is the Energy minister, Mr Kiraitu Murungi, who was in charge of the Justice and Constitutional Affairs docket.

He was the ODM leader’s harshest critic and stumbling block during the 2005 constitutional referendum.

He too, has lately had a tÍte-‡-tÍe with Raila and recently described the Lang’ata MP as a "good man and great friend of years" whom he is willing to work with.

Except for Kimunya, who is a two-term MP, Kiraitu, Karua and Raila belong to the one-time influential crop of youthful legislators who cruised to Parliament at the onset of multi-party politics in 1992 following the repeal of Section 2a.

The pro-reform heroes, popularly known as "Young-Turks", went their separate ways soon after.

Ready for re-union

However, Raila who has now emerged as the topmost leader of the group wants the team back and together.

He told The Sunday Standard that one of his goals as Prime Minister, would be to get on board all former "comrades in the second-liberation struggle".

Already, in the fold is the abrasive Prof Anyang’ Nyong’o, the ODM Secretary-General, who seems to have little time for President Kibaki and members of the Party of National Unity whom he considers hardliners.

Add to this mix the vocal Ugenya MP, Mr James Orengo and you have one grand concoction of political adversaries in a Grand Coalition Government under "not-the-best-of-friends" generals, Kibaki and Raila.

But if the instance of political foes-turned-friends — Orengo and Raila — who fought fiercely for supremacy in Luo Nyanza and within the Ford-Kenya party in the early 1990s is anything to go by, then there is no doubt this team will work together again.

Today, Kiraitu who says he has known Raila since their days in political activism in the 1990s, is ready for a political re-union with the Prime Minister-designate.

"I have known Raila for a long time. We share an eventful long history since when we struggled to liberate the country from the dictatorial single party rule. I even represented him in court," observes Kiraitu.

The Imenti South MP is captured in the Hansard — the official verbatim report of Parliamentary debates — of September 25, 1997 inviting Raila to celebrate the abolition of detention without trial since "he has been one of its greatest victims."

"Mr Speaker, I had the occasion to visit him at Shimo la Tewa and at Naivasha Prison. So, Raila, we are going to have a drink this evening because of this," remarked Kiraitu prompting prolonged laughter in the House.

Unknown to some, Raila, Kiraitu, Orengo and Karua belonged to a crop of young and fiery pro-reform politicians in the early 1990s that staged a spirited war against the then solid Kanu establishment under retired President Daniel Moi.

Composed of career professionals, especially lawyers, other members included Paul Muite, Gitobu Imanyara Japheth Shamalla, Gibson Kamau Kuria, John Khaminwa, the late Michael Wamalwa and Mukhisa Kituyi.

However, somewhere along the way the political dream of the "Young Turks" became a cropper after they took a backseat and invited the old guards to the driver’s seat.

These included Kenya’s first Vice-President Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Masinde Muliro and Mwai Kibaki, then Chairman of Democratic Party.

They were probably not confident enough then and accordingly went their separate ways.

Today, however, fate has brought the leaders together. They are no longer "Young Turks" and are politically more mature and confident to lead.

"Contrary to what most people think, we (Young Turks) are the ones who invited the older politicians after crafting an opposition outfit and setting its agenda," explains Muite.

Muite recalls that the team used to meet at his law firm offices at Nairobi’s Electricity House to strategise before the repeal of Section 2A in 1991 that ushered in multi-party politics.

"We met at least once every week at lunchtime because that was the only time most of us would afford," narrates the former Kikuyu MP.

The Safina Party leader recalls with nostalgia how his junior staff would purchase snacks including chicken wings, peanuts and soft drinks for the group’s lunch from the nearby Pagoda Hotel.

Occasionally, the team would meet at Orengo’s residence along Riara Road in Nairobi or retreat to Muite’s Karen home.

The initial meetings were so secretive and sometimes Muite would usher his guests into the bedroom. Karua, Wamalwa and Kituyi who joined the group after 1991, were not involved in the initial meetings.

Muite emerged as the leader of the group, serving in the highest political capacity as First Vice-Chairman of Ford-Kenya.

He was boss to the late Vice-President Wamalwa, Raila among a host of politicians in Ford-Kenya — then a house full of vibrant and promising politicians.

Muite recalls reflectively how the "comrades" stood united like sisters and brothers.

Initially, operated under highly repressive and restrictive years of one party state. These were the days when freedom of assembly was outlawed in practise and opposition figures were hunted down and detained without trial.

"We supported each other financially, materially and professionally. We came out in full force and lined up an array of lawyers in court whenever one of us was arrested," remembers Muite.

Raila, who often found himself on the wrong side of the law, was a major beneficiary. The trio of Karua, Kiraitu and Orengo severally acted as his lawyers as well as his wife Ida, who severally led protests over her husband’s confinement.

During the struggle spanning two decades, Raila was detained for a period totalling nine years.

Indeed, ties among the "Young Turks" equally involved immediate members of their family, especially their spouses.

Muite recalls an incident when his wife came to the aid of Orengo.

"On receiving a call from the police station where Orengo had been held (the politicians freely shared telephone numbers of each other’s spouse), she rushed there with a thermos flask of hot porridge and my sweater to keep him warm. She then alerted the rest of us and by the time we arrived, Jim (Orengo) was somewhat relaxed," he recounts.

The wives of Kenneth Matiba, Charles Rubia, Imanyara and Muite, who jointly confronted former South African President, Mr Nelson Mandela, with a protest letter, exhibited another show of unity.

The women wanted Mandela’s intervention to release Muite, Raila and Khaminwa who were separately being detained at the time. That was in July 1990 and Mandela, who had just been released from prison after serving 29 years, was visiting Kenya.

Mandela flatly declined to intervene in the "affairs of a sovereign state" and although Moi repealed Section 2A the following year, the democratic space did not expand fast as anticipated.

On August 11, 1995, youths descended on Muite’s colleague at Safina, paleontologist turned politician, Dr Richard Leakey, with whips.

The attack in Nakuru Town by a dozen Kanu youths, armed with pick-axe handles and "nyahunyu" (rubber whips), was to stop the Safina leaders from popularising their party in the then Kanu political zone.

Vocal clergyman of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa, the Reverend Timothy Njoya, got the taste of the lethal "nyahunyu" outside Parliament Buildings.

Njoya belonged to wing of Church leaders supporting the so-called second liberation.

Others were David Gitari and the late Henry Okullu of the Anglican Church and Peter Njenga of the Catholic Church.

"We were a team that worked very closely and absolutely above ethnic considerations with the objective to bringing forth a new Kenya," says Muite, former chairman of the Law Society of Kenya.

And as the heroes of yesteryears regroup in the Tenth Parliament, Muite hopes this time around they will resist retreating to their tribal cocoons -— a move that denied them an opportunity to offer Kenyans new leadership.