Uhuru, Kibaki nominated for Kenyan polls

NAIROBI, Monday - Tens of thousands of whistling, chanting, banner-waving Kenyans marched through Nairobi in carnival mood on Monday and held rallies to mark the start of the race to succeed President Daniel arap Moi in the December polls.

Nervous residents kept off the streets or stayed away from the centre of the capital altogether, fearing clashes between followers of the presidential candidates of the ruling Kenya African National Union (KANU), in power for 40 years, and the opposition National Rainbow Coalition (NARC).

But the police said there had been only isolated incidents such as the burning of tyres, despite boisterous high spirits among demonstrators dancing to rival sound systems mounted on trucks.

“Kibaki — Goodbye! Goodbye! Uhuru — Welcome! Welcome!” chanted one group of KANU supporters, referring to KANU candidate Uhuru Kenyatta and NARC’s Mwai Kibaki. Riot police carrying rifles, batons and tear gas canisters stood guard as Kenyatta presented his nomination papers to the electoral commission, a procedure that traditionally marks the start of presidential campaigns.

Kibaki, 72, presented his papers shortly afterwards and went to speak to 50,000 supporters at a stadium near the city where aides addressed him as “His Excellency,” a term most Kenyans associate only with the 78-year-old Moi.

Moi, who has been in power since 1978, is obliged by the constitution to step down at the Dec. 27 presidential and parliamentary polls.
KANU is facing its strongest challenge from an opposition coalition backed by all Kenya’s largest tribes, a feat KANU, normally an alliance of small tribes, has never managed.

Kenyatta, son of Kenya’s first president, is an inexperienced politician plucked from obscurity by Moi. If he wins, analysts expect him to allow the veteran ruler to continue ruling the country from retirement.

Moi sat pensively at the KANU rally as Kenyatta addressed an audience of 35,000 and hailed “a new generation.” “This is an opportunity given to a new generation to bring fundamental changes in this country; bring new ideas in the leadership of this country,” Kenyatta, 42, told his audience, most of them unemployed or drunken youths.

“The unity of the opposition does not lessen the chances of KANU winning. The opposition are just a group of losers. Our main focus now is on forming the next government.”

The crowd cheered Kenyatta as he promised to tackle a litany of woes facing Kenya but in a show of disapproval some walked out as Moi stood to defend his record. “It is not KANU which brought these problems; the opposition blocked funds from coming,” he said.

The opposition blames Moi for ruining the country through corruption and misgovernment. “Nairobi, which used to be the city in the sun, is now the city in the shit because of KANU,” said Raila Odinga, a NARC leader, referring to the city’s descent into lawlessness.

Both Kenyatta and Kibaki pledged to rescue east Africa’s biggest economy from poverty but many Kenyans are sceptical. “I am just here to listen to what they have to say. I know they will do nothing to solve my problems,” Maxwell Mageto, an unemployed 27-year-old law graduate, said at the KANU rally.

Both parties worked hard to attract the biggest crowds to win psychological advantage, and some participants said they had been bussed in from rural areas and were expecting to be given small amounts of “pocket money.”

“Those promising paradise give nothing,” KANU supporter Okoth Oguna said of the opposition. “But the young Turks (KANU) will give me at least sh1,200 after the rally.”

Mwai Kibaki is a two-time presidential loser and veteran politician. Up to seven other candidates are expected to be nominated.

While both men have pledged to turn around the fortunes of a deeply impoverished Kenya, Kenyatta and Kibaki offer starkly contrasting attributes.

The young Kenyatta has relatively little experience in politics and owes his limelight to Moi.

The Kenyatta family tried to push Uhuru into politics in 1990 — by which time Jomo had been dead more than a decade — to little effect.

Kenyatta ran in 1997 for the parliamentary seat held by his father, but lost. Three years later, Moi gave him one of the dozen parliamentary seats in his gift, and in 2001 handed him a ministerial portfolio.

Before he became local government minister last year, Kenyatta’s only experience of public office had been a brief stint as chairman of the National Disaster Control Fund and the Kenya Tourism Board, as well as being a member of the Egerton University Council.

Kibaki is a respected economist who has spent more than four decades in politics, and has served both Kenyatta senior and Moi.
After studying at Makerere in Uganda and at the London School of Economics, Kibaki returned to Africa to teach and then joined Kenya’s fight for independence.

He has been an MP since 1963, served as finance minister between 1969 and 1982 and as vice-president and home affairs minister.