Were Owino
6 April 2008
Gabarone — Lt. Gen. Ian Khama took over as Botswana's fourth president on Tuesday, with his people still not sure of what kind of person he is. Though Mr Khama has been in public life since 1977, when he became the youngest brigadier at 24, he remains an enigma. His people cannot place him because he rarely talks or responds to critics.
But who is Ian Khama and what does his leadership portend for the country? The new Botswana president is the son of the country's respected founding president, Sir Seretse Khama.
Mr Khama, 55, is a bachelor and teetotaller. His education is sketchy, and emphasis has been put mainly on his military training at Britain's Sandhurst Academy (he insists on being be referred to as Lt. Gen.). When he became deputy commander of Botswana's new army in 1977, his boss was Lt. Gen. Mompati Merafhe, a policeman-turned-soldier-turned-politician.
Mr Merafhe who has been Botswana's long-serving Foreign Minister, was appointed Vice-President by Mr Khama on Tuesday.
The future president took over command of the Botswana Defence Force (BDF) in 1989 when Mr Merafhe retired to join elective politics.
In 1998, Mr Khama was plucked from the military by his political mentor and predecessor, Mr Festus Mogae, and appointed vice president. Then Mr Khama was seen as the messiah who would save the Botswana Democratic Party from incessant infighting and an imminent rout at the 1999 general elections.
In the 1994 elections, the perennially poorly-performing main opposition party, the Botswana National Front (BNF), had caused a major shock by winning 13 of the 40 elective seats. As the 1999 general elections approached, a divided BDP was facing the possibility of losing power for the first time since independence in 1966.
The party went looking for a political strategist and came up with South African Lawrence Schlemmer who, among other things, recommended that the old guard give way to younger blood, and that a popular figure be found to unify BDP.
That was how Sir Ketumile Masire left the presidency for his deputy, Festus Mogae, who sought a "political messiah" in Mr Khama to end factionalism in the BDP. Mr Khama was attractive because of the family name, and the fact that he is a paramount chief of the influential Bangwato.
His late father is still a revered figure in Botswana, while the traditional hereditary chieftainship carries a lot of weight and attracts praise, unquestioning loyalty and authority.
The younger Khama was appointed vice president and entered Parliament when his MP, Roy Blackbeard of Serowe North (now Serowe Northwest), resigned and was appointed Botswana's High Commissioner to Britain. Besides the vice presidency, the new MP was given the powerful Presidential Affairs and Public Administration docket. He got down to work with gusto but rubbed some senior cabinet ministers the wrong way when he made his office something of a government complaints' clearing house.
Notably, the Minister for Commerce and Industry, Kgeledi George Kgoroba, saw this as interference and threatened to quit. Mr Khama made other ministers look incompetent or inaccessible.
In 1998, the BNF underwent an acrimonious split, effectively assuring the BDP of victory. BDP won six of the 13 seats held by the opposition to regain a comfortable majority.
In the early days, Mr Khama established a reputation as a no-nonsense leader, with little time for politicians and their games. In the 10 years he served as vice president, he barely spoke in parliament.
His best performance came in 2000, when he launched a blistering attack on MPs and cabinet ministers demanding a salary hike and walked out of the House before they could reply.
The same year, he strongly criticised politicians for being selfish, calling them monkeys and vultures.
Though a paramount chief, Mr Khama has never ruled over his tribe, preferring to leave the job to his uncles to act as regents. However, in line with his royal status, he officially re-christened himself Seretse Khama Ian Khama.
He enjoys a near-fanatical following among the Bangwato and a significant segment of the population across the political divide thanks to his royalty, his father's legacy and the stories spread about him when he was a soldier. He is a folk-hero among the youth, who admire him for his alleged military exploits.
The old generation sees the old Seretse in him, and he is popular in rural areas because he usually arrives in a chopper, which provides a spectacle for villagers. But one of his major undoings is his shaky grasp of the national language, Setswana which he speaks with a foreign accent. His linguistic blunders often send crowds into fits of laughter.
Mr Khama is a nature-loving fitness enthusiast and an ardent soccer fan. He also enjoys flying. This caused the government embarrassment when the ombudsman declared that Mr Khama should not pilot military planes since he had become a civilian.
However, Mr Mogae defended the move, saying he had given his deputy permission to fly the planes, much in the same way a government officer can drive a state car. It is not surprising, therefore, that Mr Mogae was accused of bending over backwards to accommodate Mr Khama.
In 2003, he ousted then BDP strongman Ponatshego Kedikilwe as party chairman, with Mr Mogae's support. It was a divisive contest, as the entrenched Kedikilwe and his allies had proved difficult to dislodge. Mr Mogae was faulted for taking sides.
The new Botswana president has been depicted by critics as a paranoid hardliner obsessed with espionage. His hand was always seen in most of the unpopular decisions and high- handed actions in the Mogae administration, though he has always denied this.
For example, he has been accused of using military intelligence sleuths to spy on rivals and coming up with the controversial and unpopular laws limiting liquor selling and entertainment hours. The opposition and critics were quick to blame him for the new legislative moves to establish a Directorate of Security of Intelligence (DSI).
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