A New Father

The peaceful transition

The ceremony was as flavorful and varied as Kenya itself. Native chieftains in python-skin and ostrich-feather robes, Indian women hi flowing, pastel-shaded saris, black and white Kenyans in khaki safari outfits or pinstripe suits crowded around the dais in Nairobi's Uhuru (freedom in Swahili) Park. Hundreds of tribal dancers in monkey-skin skirts and black feather headdresses swayed rhythmically, rattling anklets made of Coca-Cola bottletops and ululating cries of praise. Naval battalions boomed out a 21-gun salute, and there was an ear-cracking, low-flying aeronautics display by fighters of the Kenya air force. At the center of the colorful hosannas, a leather-bound Bible in his hands, was Daniel Torotich arap Moi, 54, who swore to serve the people of Kenya "faithfully and impartially" as the country's second President and successor to the late Jomo Kenyatta. The country's Anglican archbishop presided over an ecumenical thanksgiving service.

Arap Moi's festive induction late last week symbolized Kenya's achievement in effecting a painless, peaceable transition of power following Kenyatta's death in August after 15 consecutive years of rule since national independence. Indeed, in the turbulent politics of black Africa, arap Moi's ascension is almost unique. Said a State Department official: "We are witnessing a succession achieved without violence or the threat of violence. All the prophets of doom have been proved wrong." An editorial in Zambia's Daily Mail concluded: "If the old man came back from the dead, he would be very pleased with himself."

There was a price for the tranquil change, and arap Moi appears to have cheerfully paid it. Kenyatta's hand-picked Vice President for nearly a dozen years and Acting President since the death of Mzee (the old man), he won the job, more or less, on the assumption that he would not make too much of it. A member of the minority Kalenjin tribal group, arap Moi will be particularly dependent on three powerful figures who belong to the dominant Kikuyu tribe: Minister of Natural Resources Mbiyu Koinange, 71, Attorney General Charles Njonjo, 58, and Finance Minister Mwai Kibaki, 47, whom arap Moi straightaway appointed as his Vice President. That troika, along with Kenyatta, has plotted Kenya's pro-Western, pro-capitalist course for the past several years. Their support guaranteed arap Moi's unopposed selection by a caucus of the country's only party, the Kenya African National Union.

In personality, arap Moi could not be more different from his flamboyant, autocratic predecessor. A teetotaling, shy and straitlaced man whose most salient characteristic is an occasional flash of quick temper, he has been described as having "about as much charisma as a dry maize cob." The son of poor farmers hi the Great Rift Valley, arap Moi had by 1946 become headmaster of a government school in Kabarnet. He was one of the first Africans in Kenya to enter politics, and one of the first to be appointed to the preindependence, British-dominated national Legislative Council.

The longest-serving member of the Kenya National Assembly, arap Moi is known as "the father of the House" -- a pallid echo of Kenyatta's favorite title, "the father of the nation." Says one Western diplomat in Nairobi: "The man's no Kenyatta. But it's rather like the American system of choosing a fairly ordinary guy whom quite a lot of people respect and few really hate."

The new President is well aware that political continuity is his major selling point. Says he: "I am confident we can contain any situation if we are seriously concerned with peace and stability." Arap Moi's program is relatively modest in its ambitions: it includes more equitable land reform, further diversification of the heavily agricultural economy, and increased Kenyan participation in private enterprise. He has also vowed to fight political corruption. That could be a real challenge. Among the Kenyans who prospered mightily during Mzee's regime were members of his extensive family. Kenyatta's widow Mama Ngina, among others, amassed impressive landholdings. The father of the House sees no contradiction. "We shall build Kenya" he said, "into a single monument to the everlasting memory of our father of the nation in the living spirit he himself taught us."

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