The look on the face of Trade CS Peter Munya in a photo circulated by the Deputy President’s Press Service last week was priceless! No one can swear they often see such pictures of Kenya’s men of power.
Munya is generally a boisterous politician and looks sure-footed in most public appearances. His political enemies never scare him; gives as good as he gets. But the photo taken on Monday, July 15 showed a strange man.
One look at the shot immediately brought to mind the cliché that a picture is worth a thousand words. It would have taken the combined efforts of Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Wole Soyinka, Chinue Achebe and Okot p’Bitek to describe Munya in a manner equal to that picture.
The Trade CS was attending the opening of the Kenya Trade Week and Expo 2019 at the KICC. In the picture he is seated next to DP William Ruto and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
Each of the big men is lost in his thoughts. The DP is tagging at his chin pensively, right hand on the armrest of his chair and his gaze fixed on the person at the podium. Raila is seated back relaxed, his eyes looking attentively in the same direction as Ruto.
The striking pose is that of Munya – who should be in top form, considering that as Trade CS this is his event. Instead, Munya looks forlorn. His trademark moustache makes a sad downward curve.
His half-closed eyes cast an unseeing gaze at the bottle of water on the table before him, as if expecting it to rescue him from an undisclosed calamity. Munya’s mouth is shut tight, arms crossed at the chest.
The CS is hearing but not listening. Voices of people talking about whatever. His mind is elsewhere.
He looks cold and dejected. Scared. A myriad of thoughts seem to be coursing through his head. One gets the impression that CS Munya had great difficulty pulling himself out of bed in the morning to attend the event at KICC.
He should have feigned illness. Sent someone to represent him. Gone to a police station to report his life was in danger. Or travelled abroad. Or something dramatic should have happened to force cancellation of the entire expo at the last minute. Anything to avoid being here at this time…Oh God!
Why was Munya looking like that? Nobody knows for sure. Had he eaten meat full of chemicals from a supermarket that caused chaos in his stomach? It looked like if the CS moved a finger or even turned slightly, he would unleash a deafening explosion that could bring down KICC.
So there he sat, a statue.
The Star splashed the DPPS photo on its front page on July 16 under the heading, “La Mada ‘mastermind’ meets Ruto”.
Last time we heard about La Mada Hotel on Thika Road, the story was that CS Munya led a group of Mt Kenya politicians and government officials to plot to assassinate Ruto. The DP made the allegation, which Munya and the others denied. Their meetings were about development of the region, they said.
Reportedly, the DCI is still investigating the matter.
Perhaps George Kinoti and his team need not waste more public time and money on investigations. All they should do is take a few minutes to study the DPPS photo of Munya at KICC and decide for themselves whether the CS looks like a man who can harm a mosquito.
The power of photojournalism. Kudos DPPS!
