Aukot: How Uhuru can achieve 'Big Four' agenda

As the cloud of anxiety on the state of affairs continues to hover over Kenyans, Thirdway Alliance party leader Ekuru Aukot is striving to carve himself out a niche as the "people's liberator".

Seated at his office on Chalbhi drive in Lavington, Nairobi, Dr Aukot is yet to unfold his sleeves a year after the general elections that saw him lose to President Uhuru Kenyatta.

Asked why he is still active, he says, "until Kenya gets redemption from poor leadership, I cannot rest easy".

"I want to liberate Kenyans from the capture of the State by the elite fanned by indecisiveness at the highest level, which is nonsense.

"The MPs are all over with their hands in the cookie jar and nothing seems to be done," Dr Aukot, who holds a PhD in International Refugee Protection Law, says.

With him are the party's secretary-general Fredrick Okango and chairman Miruru Waweru.

DEDICATION TO HUMANITY

The man from Kapedo, Turkana County, has many reasons why Kenyans cannot afford to smile, singling out unemployment, high cost of living and rampant corruption as Kenya's Achilles' heel.

Dr Aukot adds that the country's state of security is not something to brag about, citing incidents in Mt Elgon, Isiolo, Bungoma, Wajir and Lamu counties.

Other than playing politics, he runs Dr Ekuru Aukot Foundation that sponsors the education of nomadic and pastoralist boys and girls.

He also operates Ekuru Aukot Law Consulting where he also takes up pro bono cases.

He has had a vertical career progression, having been the CEO of the Committee of Experts that wrote Kenya’s 2010 constitution, and later conducting consultancy works in Lesotho, Gambia, Liberia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Tunisia and Egypt.

POLITICS

Dr Aukot has also been an adviser to South Sudan’s Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement before and after the 2011 independence.

"I am passionate about what I do. I cannot be compromised, I am truthful and brutally honest."

Despite his poll defeat he has not given up yet, just like a hunter who misses an antelope for a hare on a not so good day.

"This is what gives me courage because I believe that one day, I will be up there. The far I have come, I thank God. I come from a humble background, a son of a pastoralist," he says.

A year after the controversial presidential elections that saw the Supreme Court nullify President Kenyatta’s win and ordered a fresh poll be held on October 26, Dr Aukot believes that Kenyans feel cheated. Why?

BUILDING BRIDGES

After the acrimonious poll, Mr Kenyatta teamed up with opposition leader Raila Odinga and developed a nine-point agenda to foster durable peace among Kenyans.

Though it is meant to bring the country back to the path of national healing, he fears that it may be another diversionary tactic and that nothing solid may come out of it.

"I support the building bridges initiative and if you look at our manifesto, the issues the team is seeking to address are the same things we have been talking about," he says, adding that they are fashioned along the lines of the Kriegler report on electoral reforms and the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission report, among others, whose recommendations have not been enforced.

PEACE DEAL

He is also unapologetic about his comments that opposition Nasa and Jubilee Party have become political Siamese twins.

Dr Aukot said he supports the famous March 9 peace deal between President Kenyatta and Mr Odinga, and hopes their agenda succeeds.

On that note, he revealed that he ran for the top seat hoping to inform Kenyans how "mature" politics should be conducted.

"I knew I would not win the election but it did not stop me from telling Kenyans this is how we play politics, mature politics. We are soldiering on and one day we shall reach the destination we promised Kenyans," he says.

CORRUPTION

When Mr Kenyatta was inaugurated for his second and last term, he announced his priority areas that he must achieve: providing universal healthcare and affordable housing for all, improving food security and promoting the manufacturing industry.

But the man from Kapedo says the only way the President will accomplish his goals is by first stanching theft of public resources.

He observed that many Kenyans continue to lack access to basic services such as primary healthcare, education, potable water and security; meanwhile, corruption is thriving.

On the renewed war against graft, the party's secretary-general Fredrick Okango says they are happy that some of the proposals they have been pushing for are being implemented.

"We proposed that investigations should not take more than 30 days and we can see that the DPP [Director of Public Prosecutions] and the investigative agencies are doing something," Mr Okango says.

On his part, Mr Waweru, an economist, says that the President's priorities will continue to remain a pipe dream unless all the monies that have been looted are recovered.

"Economy is a social science and if you want to know its growth, just hear what the poor are saying."