In one meeting at Kisumu town, Kidero gave Sh2.5 million, delivered Sh500,000 from President Uhuru, while ODM leader Raila Odinga who was present gave Sh500,000. Political pundits and ODM politicians close to Raila have claimed Kidero’sactions show an orchestrated political strategy to outshine Raila in his Nyanza stronghold, while betraying a cosy political relationship with the President, rather than with his party leader. In a candid interview with The People Saturday in his office, Kidero for the first time answers thorny questions revolving around him, including accusations that he is angling to take over from Raila the Nyanza leadership and of playing ball with Jubilee.
He strongly hurled back a jibe at an underhand theory peddled by allies of Raila, that being an in-law of the late Nyanza maestro Tom Mboya, he could be playing for Uhuru the same game on Raila that Jomo Kenyatta used Mboya to play on Jaramogi Oginga Odinga. Kidero was irked by this analogy, saying it was far-fetched and makes no sense. Kidero is married to Dr Susan Mboya, daughter of the late Tom (TJ) Mboya and the late Dr Pamela Mboya. Mboya was instrumental in schemes and machinations that saw the Kenyatta regime clip the influence of his then vice-president Jaramogi Odinga.
Mboya, like Kidero, was from South Nyanza (Migori and Homabay counties) while Jaramogi adherents were largely from what is called Central Nyanza which encompasses Kisumu and Siaya counties. There has been talk that Kidero’s development tours, by dint of his marriage to Mboya’s daughter Susan, might trigger the old South Nyanza versus Central Nyanza rivalry, that indeed he could be the reincarnate Mboya proxy to finish the business his late in-law never completed. However, in his response, Kidero says: “That is absolute nonsense, to say the least. Let people keep my wife and family out of politics. They are not politicians.
Let the politicians and those of you in the media spare them the unwarranted intrusion. They are entitled to their privacy. The persistent obtrusion on their privacy is unfair and uncalled for. Spare them the insolence please. This paparazzi-like chase by media corps and politicians is not good to them or myself. My wife is just a beautiful woman whom I met and talked to and who agreed to give me a hand in life. There were no talks or agreements on our family backgrounds. If we are to focus on who her parents are, then you have to also ask what it is that she saw in my own parents who are just ordinary folks like majority of other Kenyans. It is unfair to drag my wife and family into my public affairs.”
Regarding his dual warm rapport with both the Head of State and the former Prime Minister, Kidero says: “Let me tell you and everyone else who cares to listen, I will work with both of them. I am their loyal friend and colleague. Uhuru is the President of the Republic of Kenya. Can someone show me who else is?” The 57-year-old technocrat asserted: “On the other hand, let it also be clear to everyone that Raila is the leader of the party that handed me the ticket to contest the position that I serve in today.
He vigorously campaigned for me, he is my party boss, my political mentor and counsellor on many other matters. Why then would anyone want me not to respect or work with him? My respect for, loyalty to and friendship with each of them is unflinching.” However, Kidero is quick to caution that though he has a warmrelationship with Raila, “I know for sure some powerful people around ‘Jakom’ (‘chairman’-Raila) do not like me. There are some people around him who have been trying to drive a wedge between me and him.”
He asserted that he has no plan to try to edge Raila out of his Nyanza bedrock or ODM leadership. Last month, Kidero pulled out of the race for ODM vice-chairmanship, leading to speculation that he might be nurturing plans to exit the party. However, in the frank conversation, Kidero said: “My party is the biggest in Kenya today. We need to strengthen the party and I can give my contribution from any other position. It was not a matter of life and death for me to run for that party position. There will always be another day.”
On his fundraising forays, Kidero says development should not be watered down by political agenda. Kidero argues that since independence in 1963, Kenya has had a lull in development owing to politics of deep-rooted ethnicity and sycophancy. “For example”, he poses, “Who said that Luos and Kikuyus should not talk and work together and when they do that suspicions must start cropping up?
Why am I looked at from a Luo prism and not Kenyan lenses when I talk to Uhuru or vice-versa? Why should it be seen as untoward when the President and I share a cup of tea, yet he was elected by votes from across the country? ” And was that another side of Kidero that Kenyans saw when he slapped Nairobi Women’s Representative Racheal Shebesh? “That was an unfortunate encounter,” was all the governor said as he promised to change the face of Nairobi.
- The People
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