In Kenya, Angry Moi Fires Longtime Vice President

By DAVAN MAHARAJ

Aug. 31, 2002 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

NAIROBI, Kenya — Moving to squelch an unprecedented revolt in his ruling party, President Daniel Arap Moi on Friday fired his long-serving deputy, who has been challenging Moi’s efforts to install his own successor when he retires in a few months.

Analysts said the firing of George Saitoti, Kenya’s vice president for the last 13 years, was a warning to senior ministers and leaders of the ruling Kenya African National Union, or KANU, who are defying Moi’s wishes by vying for the party’s presidential nomination.

Moi has been traversing this East African nation for the last several weeks promoting Uhuru Kenyatta as his successor. Kenyatta is the son of the country’s first president and grew up in State House, the presidential residence.

Saitoti and three other KANU leaders have vigorously campaigned against Moi’s bid to “impose” a leader on the country. They say Kenyatta, a 41-year-old businessman and political unknown, is too inexperienced to lead the country. The four, who call themselves the Rainbow Alliance after the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition, say they want a fair chance to make their own runs for the job.

Moi, who has ruled Kenya since the death of Jomo Kenyatta in 1978, is barred from seeking reelection when his term expires in January.

The presidential election, tentatively scheduled for December, is being closely monitored by the United States and Britain--its former colonial ruler. They see Kenya as a relatively stable country in a bad neighborhood that includes war-ravaged Rwanda, Congo, Sudan and Somalia.

Moi, who has previously jailed critics, including journalists and opposition leaders, has been relatively restrained in dealing with the recent persistent attacks on himself and his preferred candidate.

Earlier this month, he fired two government ministers who supported the Rainbow Alliance. This week, William Ruto, a government minister close to Moi, called on the 58-year-old Saitoti to resign for opposing Kenyatta, signaling that the president was becoming increasingly unhappy with his appointed vice president.

Moi’s office issued a statement Friday declaring that Saitoti had been sacked. No reason was given, and no replacement was named. Saitoti’s duties as home affairs minister were handed over to Ruto.

Gichira Kibara, director of the Nairobi-based think tank the Center for Governance and Development, said Saitoti’s firing would give Moi the opportunity to elevate Kenyatta to the post of his top deputy.

Kibara and other analysts say Moi is promoting Kenyatta because he believes that the businessman would shield him from possible prosecution for what many Kenyans believe is a legacy of high-level corruption and poverty. The Berlin-based watchdog Transparency International named Kenya this week as one of the six most corrupt countries in the world.

The analysts say Moi believes that Kenyatta would protect the vast business empire he amassed during his presidency, just as Moi has safeguarded the massive business interests accumulated by Kenyatta’s father.

But analysts also say that Saitoti’s firing could strengthen the popularity of Moi’s opponents.

On Friday, throngs of students from the nearby University of Nairobi pushed past tourists dressed in safari suits at the famed Norfolk Hotel to attend a news conference at which Saitoti, a former mathematics professor, announced that he would continue campaigning for president.

Inside the hotel, students chanted “Moi must go!” and paraphrased a Swahili hymn, singing: “Who created Moi? It is not you God, it is Satan.”

“Our president is confused,” said Jane Githui, a 23-year-old student. “He is getting rid of the top guys who know his biggest secrets.... He’s only out to protect himself, not represent the interests of the wananchi”--the common people.

Inside, Saitoti promised that if he won the presidency, he would not seek revenge against Moi and his associates.

“The politics of this country must be handled with maturity and vision,” Saitoti said. “I will not revisit the causative factors of my humiliation.”

Judith Osewe of The Times’ Nairobi Bureau contributed to this report.