Vol 61 No 19

Published 24th September 2020

KENYA

Keeping up with the Kenyattas

24th September 2020

As they take the field, the battle between the President and his deputy is testing the limits of ethnic politics

'You should go and insult your mother, not mine' said President Uhuru Kenyatta on 10 September to a small crowd just outside Nairobi. He was referring to two Kalenjin politicians – Johana Ng'eno from Narok, and Oscar Sudi from Nandi – who had the previous weekend reminded Kenyatta that Kenya belongs to all the 47 ethnic groups 'and not to the Kenyattas or Mama Ngina Kenyatta' (Kenyatta's mother). Many of the President's disciples, including some Jubilee Party female legislators, attacked the two men for 'abusing the mother of the nation'. Like most Kalenjin, the two politicians resent of the President's treatment of his Deputy, William Ruto (a Kalenjin), now practically excluded from all aspects of government by a squad of the President's closest advisers led by Jubilee Party deputy chairman David Murathe, in alliance with Raila Odinga's key men in the Orange Democratic Movement.

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Vol 61 No 19

Keeping up with the Kenyattas

As they take the field, the battle between the President and his deputy is testing the limits of ethnic politics

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