Njonjo Kihuria
15 June 2008
Nairobi — In the run-up to last year's General Election, Mathioya MP John Joseph Kamotho endorsed President Kibaki for another term, breaking ranks with his ODM colleagues who were fronting for Raila Odinga.
But in spite of the glowing tribute he paid the President, Mr Kamotho does not really like him, and the feeling, he says, is mutual.
Mr Kamotho recalls how, in October 2002, he and Mr William ole Ntimama, then acting as emissaries of the Liberal Democratic Party, met Mr Kibaki and Dr Chris Murungaru at a Nairobi hotel seeking a merger with Mr Kibaki's National Alliance (Party) of Kenya (NAK) to run against Kanu in the General Election of that year. The discussions would later result in the creation of the National Rainbow Coalition (Narc), which romped to victory over Kanu that December.
LDP had proposed that when the President named his Cabinet, Mr Kamotho and Mr Ntimama be named ministers. "But my name was removed from the list by people close to Mr Kibaki, and he did not even raise a finger," Mr Kamotho says with a tinge of bitterness.
The bad blood between Mr Kamotho and the President, which the former refers to as a "misunderstanding," started in the early 1980s before the "traitor" issue that sent then Attorney-General Charles Njonjo and politicians thought to be his close associates - including Kamotho - into oblivion.
The former MP remembers how, back in the 1970s, 98 MPs came together to counter the change-the-constitution campaign against Mr Moi and chose Stanley Oloitiptip to lead it.
Several years later after the downfall of Mr Njonjo, who had been branded a "traitor," Mr Oloitiptip was sidelined. He remained in the political doldrums until his death.
Of the infamous "traitor" issue that also cost him his job, the former minister believes it was a power struggle, but he never understood why Mr Moi turned against his former bosom buddies.
"When he took over (the presidency), Moi was very humble. People from other tribes felt that there were too many Kikuyus in government and that a way had to be found to reduce their numbers. Some like Elijah Mwangale, Masinde Muliro and Burundi Nabwera believed one of their own should have taken the Number Two slot in the Moi government." Mr Kamotho swears that neither he nor Njonjo nor Oloitiptip planned to overthrow Moi's government.
"Njonjo was not planning anything against Moi, but there were personality differences between him and his peers.
"Oloitiptip was a down-to-earth man who may have misread Njonjo's association with Moi and became too close to the former. He adored Njonjo unreservedly and this utter respect for the AG he believed was the president's best friend was to cost him dearly on the political and personal fronts," he says.
Mr Kamotho says the inquiry into the conduct of Mr Njonjo was a waste of public funds as all that was said about him was untrue. He says the matter was complicated by Mr Moi's style of leadership. He says the former president listened to too many people, and got wrong signals, which made decision-making difficult.
"Moi would often say, 'if all these people are saying this man (Njonjo) is bad, then he must be,' but it was obvious he was fighting a war waged by Njonjo's enemies."
In the 1983 snap elections, Mr Kamotho lost his parliamentary seat. He now compares last year's General Election to that of 1983 when, he says, the government used its machinery to ensure that those whom it did not want elected were locked out.
So is it true that he was penniless after the 1983 elections and that, with nothing better to do, he would pass time at his wife's shop in Utalii House?
"That was politics of hate. It is true I used to go and read newspapers at my wife's shop, but I was not broke. In fact, it was at that time that I bought this property (his Gatare Gardens country mansion in Kitisuru) at a cost of Sh1.2 million."
A rumour that the so-called Nyayo milk consumed by schoolchildren in central Kenya had been laced with chemicals to render the consumers infertile sent him back to Mr Moi's good books.
He issued a press statement condemning the people behind the rumour, and when the former president later conducted a harambee at Tumutumu in Nyeri, he saluted him for that stand -"a sure signal that his confidence in me was back". And he was back into the fold.
Mlolongo elections
In the infamous 1988 Mlolongo (queue system) elections, he garnered 67 per cent of the votes in Kangema, beating Mr John Michuki. When a government was formed, he was named assistant minister in the Office of the President and later elected Murang'a Kanu branch chairman. The then Transport minister Kenneth Matiba was upset by the turn of events and resigned as minister and MP for Kiharu.
Mr Kamotho became Kanu secretary-general after the death of Moses Mudavadi, and was made a minister. He served in various ministries, including education.
Even when Mr Kibaki was the Vice-President, Mr Kamotho was closer to and regularly in the company of President Moi. The President would dine at Mr Kamotho's rural home when he had a function in Murang'a or Nyeri. This led to rumours that Mr Moi was planning on dropping Mr Kibaki as VP to replace him with the Mathioya MP, something Mr Kibaki did not take too kindly.
"There was no grain of truth in the claims, but when Mr Kibaki got wind of this, and though we have never had open confrontation, he appeared to hold a grudge against me," Mr Kamotho says.
But he adds that Mr Moi used to complain that Mr Kibaki was not helping him much with all the fund-raisers he was holding throughout the country. But it cannot be ruled out that the grandmaster was playing the game he had perfected - divide and rule. Between 1988 and 2002, Mr Kamotho served as President Moi's right hand man and Kanu spokesman.
For his hawkish stance, which he terms "knowledge of competitive politics, party constitution and manifesto, skills in national networking and loyalty," he lost his parliamentary seat in the 1992 and 1997 general elections. But President Moi would nominate him to Parliament and the Cabinet.
"If I agree to do something, I do it with total commitment and whether you like it or not, Kanu had rules and regulations that worked," he says explaining his stance. The former minister is proud of his role as the Kanu national elections coordinator in 1992 and 1997, a role he believes helped the party win both elections.
"I articulated the party's policy and defended the party and government against accusations by the opposition," he says.
Mr Kamotho, who was in daily contact with Mr Moi, said the former president kept him close by because of his effectiveness as the party secretary-general.
Then he left with the other MPs led by Mr Odinga after the failed Kanu/National Development Party merger in 2002. Mr Kamotho, who lost his secretary-general's position to NDP leader Raila Odinga, does not blame Mr Moi for what he calls the crying shame that was the Kasarani National Delegates Conference.
He instead accuses the "Rift Valley Mafia" of orchestrating the merger while lying to Mr Odinga that he would be the automatic Kanu presidential candidate while they were rooting for one of their own to succeed the President.
"Moi's objective was to 'swallow' and in the process destroy NDP, while strengthening Kanu, and so Mr Odinga would never have been his preferred presidential candidate and leaders from the Rift Valley, who knew this, believed one of their own would succeed him."
"The choice of Uhuru was personal to Moi and caught them by surprise, but Moi was still very powerful then and they had to reluctantly toe the line," he says. He thinks the way Mr Moi anointed Mr Kenyatta spoilt his image.
"But Uhuru, who is a very intelligent person with a quick mind, has great potential. I would not take him too lightly," he adds.
He says Mr Odinga is a vibrant, great thinker who, unlike Mr Kibaki, "participates in all aspects of politics, is full of ideas, a good mobiliser and crowd puller".
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